History of Sansha
In March 1953, as talks were proceeding with the French on the handing over of Hainan and territories south of Guangdong to the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese State Council authorized the establishment of a separate “Guangdong Province Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority” as a county-level administrative division on Woody Island (Yongxing Dao). However, the island continued to support a threadbare population of fisherfolk at that time. In March 1959, during China’s Cultural Revolution, when Revolutionary Committees were being set up across the country, this authority was upgraded to the “Guangdong Province Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Revolutionary Committee”.
In October 1984, the administration of Sansha consisting of Yong xing dao (Woody island) and other islands in the South China sea was transferred to Hainan. This coincided with the establishment of Hainan as a separate administrative region. In September 1988,the authority’s name was officially changed to the “Hainan Province Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority”. On 25 December 2006, Woody Island ‘census-town’s’ first-ever “Residents’ and Fishermen’s Congress” was held. Three representatives at the township and village levels were selected to represent the census-town’s Neighborhood Committee of the North and South Villages. The Neighborhood Committee began work on Woody Island the following day with an office at the Border Guards of the Paracels’ Police Station. These were the first ever actual subdivisions created within the county-level authority.
The prospect of the establishment of a “city” on Woody Island was first publicized on 19 November 2007 in a report by Mingpao, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, through a telephone interview with a Mr. Zhang of the Propaganda Department of Wenchang, Hainan. This report claimed that a county-level city was to be established by the PRC State Council in November 2007 to administer three disputed archipelagos in the South China Sea:[13] the Paracel Islands, Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha Islands) and the Spratly Islands. This was to replace the county-level “Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority”. The city of Wenchang would provide supplies and logistics to the to-be-established city.
On 23 July 2012 the PRC Central Military Commission announced it had authorized the People’s Liberation ArmyGuangzhou Military Command to form a “garrison command” in Sansha City. The troops would be responsible for managing the city’s national defence mobilisation, military reserve, and carrying out military operations.
On 24 July 2012, the PRC officially established the city of Sansha in Yongxing Island.
