evidence: The prevailing basis for China’s historic claims to the SCS （South China Sea） is the U-shaped line (also called nine-dotted line, or nine-dash line) officially drawn on the Chinese map in 1947 by the then–Chinese Nationalist Government, which was originally an "eleven-dotted-line" . After the Communist Party of China took over mainland China and formed the People's Republic of China in 1949, the line was adopted and revised to nine as endorsed by Zhou Enlai. The line, which has been called a "traditional maritime boundary line", encloses the main island features of the SCS: the Pratas Islands, the Paracel Islands, the Macclesfield Bank, and the Spratly Islands. No country, including Southeast Asian countries or their past rulers, protested or challenged the validity of the 9-dash line from 1947 to 1970s.