Truong Sa special zone

Geography

Truong Sa lies far offshore in the South China Sea, about 248 nautical miles (459 km) south east of Cam Ranh ward on the Khanh Hoa mainland and about 305 nautical miles from Vung Tau^[1][2]. Vietnam administers 21 named islands, islets and reefs there, grouped across eight clusters of the wider Spratly Islands archipelago, which as a whole carries more than 100 islands, cays, atolls and reefs claimed in whole or in part by six states^[2][3]. The zone's main island, Truong Sa Lon, also known in English as Spratly Island, sits at about 8.6447 degrees north, 111.92 degrees east^[4].

Sources disagree on the zone's total land area. The Vietnamese Wikipedia article gives 9.35 km²^[2]; English Wikipedia's infobox instead gives 496 km² (192 sq mi) as the district's total area, without distinguishing land from sea, and the figure appears nowhere in its body text; no fetched source explains the difference^[1].

Administrative history

The Council of Ministers created Truong Sa district under Dong Nai province by Decision 193/HDBT of 9 December 1982^[2]. Only weeks later, a resolution of the National Assembly passed on 28 December 1982 moved the district into the newly formed Phu Khanh province^[1][2]. When a resolution of the 8th National Assembly's 5th session split Phu Khanh into Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa on 30 June 1989, Truong Sa came under the direct administration of the new Khanh Hoa province^[10]. Wikidata records Truong Sa as a special administrative division of Vietnam under identifier Q1328612^[7].

Decree 65/2007/ND-CP of 11 April 2007 divided the district into Truong Sa town and two rural communes, Song Tu Tay and Sinh Ton^[2]. Resolution 1667/NQ-UBTVQH15, which the Standing Committee of the National Assembly passed on 16 June 2025 and which took legal effect from the date of its signature, merged the town and both communes into a single unit named Truong Sa special zone; the new unit began operating from 1 July 2025, the same day the wider merger of Ninh Thuan into Khanh Hoa took effect^[5].

Population and infrastructure

The 2009 census counted 195 people in the district, 82 of them in Truong Sa town; by the 2019 census the total had fallen to 93, with 30 in the town^[1]. Báo Gia Lai reported close to 100 civilian households living across the islands^[8].

Nine lighthouses on the islands have been managed by the same authority since 1993, according to Báo Gia Lai^[8]. Nhan Dan reported that the zone's settlements include schools, medical clinics, pagodas, war memorials and Ho Chi Minh memorial houses, and a harbour able to take vessels of up to 2,000 tonnes deadweight^[9].

Competing claims in the Spratly Islands

Six states claim all or part of the Spratly Islands: Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam^[3]. Brunei's claim is limited to an exclusive economic zone that includes the uninhabited Louisa Reef, and it occupies no feature there^[3]. The other five states each hold a number of islands or reefs, including Vietnam's holdings administered as the Truong Sa special zone^[2][3].

The 1988 Gac Ma clash

On 14 March 1988, Vietnamese and Chinese naval forces clashed at Johnson South Reef, known to Vietnam as Gac Ma, part of the Union Banks in the Spratly Islands, at about 9 degrees 43 minutes north, 114 degrees 17 minutes east^[6]. Both countries had been placing markers and building on reefs in the group that year: China had been assigned to build an oceanographic station, and Vietnam had responded by establishing a presence on further reefs^[6].

The two sides give different accounts of who fired first. China's account holds that Vietnamese personnel tried to raise a flag on the reef at about 07:30 and that Chinese forces counter attacked at 08:47; Vietnam's account holds that Chinese ships arrived first and opened fire on Vietnamese personnel who were unloading construction material^[6]. Vietnam recorded 64 of its personnel killed, 11 wounded and 9 taken prisoner, and reported that two of its transport ships were sunk and a landing ship destroyed^[6]. China recorded one of its own sailors wounded^[6].

China ended the encounter in control of Johnson South Reef; Vietnam retained the nearby Collins and Lansdowne reefs^[6]. By the end of 1988, China held six reefs in the group in total^[6].

Present day

As reorganised in 2025, the Truong Sa special zone answers directly to the Khanh Hoa provincial government, with no intermediate district level, the same two-tier structure adopted across the rest of the province in the wider 2025 reform^[5]. Vietnamese press has counted it among thirteen special zones created nationwide in that reform^[8].