According to a July 13 report in Vietnam's Labor News, the Hanoi municipal government recently submitted a proposal to the city council declaring its intentions to give names to two roads. The two roads will be christened "Hoang Sa" and "Truong Sa," which are what the Vietnamese call China's Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands respectively.

The road that will bear the name "Hoang Sa" is 4.8 kilometers long and 68 meters wide, while "Truong Sa" is 7.35 kilometers long. Both roads are located in the northern city of Hanoi, and both are key roads in plans to develop the area. They are also located in the hometown of Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

According to a Global Times article, Vietnam often gives major roads the names of famous places or persons. Prior to the current case in Hanoi, roads in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City were also named "Hoang Sa" and "Truong Sa."

Sun Xiaoying, a researcher with the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, gave an interview to Global Times on July 14. During the interview, Sun commented, "Vietnam has coveted China's Xisha and Nansha Islands for a very long time. Ever since Vietnam developed its maritime power in the 1990s, the Vietnamese government has been consistently arguing for and declaring sovereignty over the region, even though there is no validity behind those arguments. The road-naming ploy is a very childish practice, but it is nothing new. It's just a continuation of what Vietnam has been attempting for years."