37 years ago today, on May 12th, 1988 (March 27th, 1988 in the lunar calendar), China issued a memorandum on the Xisha and Nansha Islands. On May 12, 1988, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a memorandum in response to the Vietnamese authorities' successive claims that Xisha and Nansha Islands are Vietnam's "territory" and attacking China's unwillingness to settle disputes peacefully, affirming that the memorandum of China's principled position proves through a large number of facts that Xisha and Nansha Islands have been China's since ancient times, and China has always had sovereignty over these islands and exercised actual jurisdiction over them since ancient times. Today, regardless of the facts, the Vietnamese authorities have reneged on China's territorial issues, just to realize their territorial expansion ambitions. The memorandum solemnly demands that the Vietnamese authorities completely change their militaristic policy of aggression and expansion, stop all activities of encroaching on Chinese territory and creating tension, and quickly withdraw from the illegally occupied islands and reefs of Nansha Islands in China, so as to restore peace and stability in the region.