Sansha

In 2007 Beijing established the new Sansha municipality in Hainan Province, which has jurisdiction over three islets that Vietnam claims in the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos. This led to large-scale protest demonstrations outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi.

Source: wiktionary

As recently as June 2012, Vietnam passed a maritime law reasserting its sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands and delimiting its maritime claims for both.²²⁰ On the same day, in response to this challenge to its claimed sovereignty, China upgraded the status of Sansha City. Vietnam and the Philippines expectedly protested but, unusually, so did the United States.²²¹

Source: wiktionary

The PRC has also used lawfare to bolster its territorial claims in the South China Sea by designating the village of Sansha, located on the disputed Paracel Islands, as a Hainan Prefecture in an attempt to extend PRC control far into the region.

Source: wiktionary

On Saturday it said it had established an administrative district on the Paracel islands and another on the Spratly islands. The two districts are under the control of China’s Sansha city, according to China Global Television Network. “The establishment of the so-called Sansha City and related activities seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty,” Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement.

Source: wiktionary