Vietnam yesterday said China had violated its sovereignty by setting up a military garrison in the disputed Paracel Islands after Beijing on Sunday named legislators to govern a new city there as tensions continued to rise in the South China Sea.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi also accused China of violating international law as well as an agreement signed between Hanoi and Beijing in October which established a set of basic rules to deal with such disputes.

“Vietnam resolutely opposes China’s above-mentioned activities and requests that China respect its sovereignty and immediately ceases its wrongful activities,” he said in a formal protest to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Authorities in Danang and Khanh Hoa provinces which administer the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands on behalf of Hanoi also issued a strongly worded statement saying China’s actions did not change the fact that the islands belonged to Vietnam. Both countries also claim the Spratly Islands.

China’s state-run press has hailed Beijing’s decision last month to establish Sansha City as the administrative center of China’s claim to all disputed islands in the South China Sea as a decisive move in the sovereignty battle. The new city is on Woody Island, a member of the Paracels group.

Vietnam has seen rare protests against China in recent weeks as tensions have escalated.

On Sunday, China named 45 legislators to Sansha City’s Congress, the same day the official Xinhua news agency reported that the People’s Liberation Army had been instructed to set up a military garrison in the new city.

The two neighbors administered different islands within the Paracels until 1974 when a brief war led to China claiming full sovereignty over the chain.

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