Open Letter to the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in the Maldives

Chagos: South–South Integrity and the UN Path to Justice

Maldivians for Chagos (civil society coalition)
Website: http://www.maldivians4chagos.com
Email: admin@maldivians4chagos.com
Tel: (+960) 9913632

His Excellency Mr Kong Xianhua
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
Malé, Republic of Maldives

Your Excellency,

Decolonisation is not a bilateral gift

True decolonisation is not cut by ribbon at a bilateral table; it is supervised by the United Nations and includes those whose rights are at stake. Chagos tests whether the Global South will accept a colonial defect as a solution, or insist on returning to the lawful process.

The silence engineered: the Maldives not fully self-governing (1887–1965)

From 1887, the Maldives was held under protectorate status. The 1948 and 1953 arrangements gave Britain control of foreign affairs and defence, and required British approval of Maldivian leaders. Until 1965, therefore, the Maldives was not self-governing.

Britain had a duty under Article 73(e) to report such territories as NSGTs, and it did so for others: Bechuanaland Protectorate, British Solomon Islands Protectorate, British Somaliland Protectorate, Brunei, and many more. Yet the Maldives was never listed, and when BIOT was carved out in 1965, it too was omitted. This was systematic erasure that excluded the Maldives from the C-24 and the Fourth Committee, silencing its rights at the UN while others advanced their claims.

Maldivian presence before the empire

Long before, Ibn Majid described a Maldivian-centred maritime sphere across Chagos and outward toward Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Seychelles. In 1561, Sultan Hassan IX’s Cochin letters claimed the “seven islands of Pullobay,” understood as Peros Banhos (Chagos). Later, Pyrard de Laval chronicled our range; our folklore recalled the slave-raiding centuries as “giant cats from the sea”; Dhivehi gravestones still stand in Diego Garcia; and a 1924 British newspaper called Diego Garcia “one of the Maldive Islands.” The fabric of presence is dense and consistent.

Distortion in the UN record

UNGA Resolution 2066 condemned detachment from Mauritius, while the Maldives was excluded. UNGA Resolution 71/272 later sent the matter to the ICJ framed as UK–Mauritius, and the 2019 advisory opinion with UNGA Resolution 73/295 followed that frame. Meanwhile, the defect has enabled a trans-oceanic rebranding: a non-contiguous reach of more than two thousand kilometres presented as decolonisation. That is not South–South justice; it is neocolonialism by distance.

Law is the corrective

Article 34 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states that no treaty binds a third state without its consent. The Maldives is that third state. No bilateral deal can erase its rights.

A respectful request to China

We ask China, committed to decolonisation and multipolar fairness, to support the correction of this defect: urge the UK to list BIOT/Chagos, transmit Article 73(e) information for BIOT and (historically) the Maldives, and return the case to the C-24 and the Fourth Committee. This is fidelity to principle, not antagonism.

Chagos is Maldives. It is written in navigation, in parchment, in protest, and in print. Let it be written now in law, with China’s voice for justice.

 

Respectfully,

International Outreach Coordination Desk
Maldivians for Chagos
http://www.maldivians4chagos.com
admin@maldivians4chagos.com
(+960) 9913632

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Annex I: Timeline of Historical Facts

Date / Period	Event	Significance
Late 1400s	Ibn Majid’s Maldivian-centred routes	Pre-colonial knowledge situating Chagos within Maldivian sphere.
1561	Hassan IX letters (Pullobay/Peros Banhos)	Oldest written Maldivian claim to Chagos.
1600s	Pyrard de Laval	European confirmation of Maldivian range.
17th–18th c.	Folklore of slave raids	Cultural memory aligning with historical slaving.
Undated	Dhivehi gravestones, Diego Garcia	Material proof of presence.
1715	Terra nullius extended by France	Colonial erasure of prior sovereignty.
1810/1814	Treaty of Paris dependencies	Bundling under Mauritius without Maldives.
1834	Moresby separation + protests	Recorded resistance.
1887 / 1948 / 1953	Protectorate/controls	External voice narrowed.
1924	UK press recognition	Diego Garcia “one of the Maldive Islands.”
1965	BIOT + population; no NSGT	UN oversight avoided.
1971–73	Expulsions	Confirms distinct community; rights harmed.

Annex II: Timeline of the UN Defect

Date / Period	Event	Significance
1946	NSGT list omits BIOT	Excludes Chagos from UN decolonization oversight.
1946–1965	Maldives (protectorate; not fully self-governing) not reported as NSGT, even though the UK reported other protectorates (e.g., Bechuanaland Protectorate, British Solomon Islands Protectorate, British Somaliland Protectorate, Brunei)	Selective non-reporting by the UK; systematic erasure that kept Maldives out of C-24/Fourth Committee precisely when BIOT was created; contrary to Art. 73(e) and later UNGA 1541 (XV) criteria.
1960	UNGA 1514 (Declaration on Decolonization)	Decolonization norm undermined by omission.
1965	BIOT created; no 73(e) reporting	Charter duty unmet.
Dec 1965	UNGA 2066 (Mauritius detachment)	Maldives excluded.
1971–73	Expulsions of Chagossians	Confirms human impact of the defect.
1969 / ongoing	VCLT Art. 34	Bars bilateral prejudice to a third state.
2017	UNGA 71/272 to ICJ (UK–Mauritius frame)	Maldives still excluded.
2019	ICJ AO & UNGA 73/295	Mirror the narrowed frame.
2023–25	Proposed UK–Mauritius transfer	Must follow NSGT listing + UN review first.