China has built the city of Sansha on the disputed Paracel Islands
Forty years ago dozens of Vietnamese soldiers were killed in a bloody battle with Chinese troops over disputed islands in the South China Sea.
This year, for the first time, Vietnam's state media is publicly marking the event, printing numerous articles on the battle.
The move comes in the month that the Chinese government published new rules requiring foreign fishing vessels to seek Beijing's permission to operate in most of the South China Sea - an action likely to further raise anti-China rhetoric in the Vietnamese press.
Prior to the battle, Vietnam had controlled some islands within the Paracel archipelago (Xisha in Chinese) and China had controlled others. Both sides claimed them in full, as did Taiwan.
On 19 January 1974 a clash erupted between the South Vietnamese navy and Chinese forces.
