Party and State: No Historical Evidence Found for South China Sea Island Claims

Saturday, September 7, 2013

No Historical Evidence Found for South China Sea Island Claims

A shaky grasp of world history has led China laying claim to almost every island in the South China Sea. Well, those that could be considered mineral and oil rich, anyway. At first it was great way to get in some Jap bashing, but the Fillipino's have emerged as the latest bad guys that are, according to maps drawn up a millennia ago (probably), they are occupying Chinese territory.

Since April last year, Chinese vessels have been spotted in the area and fishermen detained around the Scarborough Shoal reef. The detentions were followed with the confiscation of cargo, in one case consisting of illegally collected sharks and giant clams.

In a translated interview from the Chinese state television that appeared in the China Daily, renowned and well-known military expert Major General Zhang Zhaozhong spoke of the strategy that China had to recover the islands.

“What one has stolen has to be returned. No matter how long the Philippines have illegally occupied those Chinese islands and reefs, I believe that it cannot change the fact that those islands and reefs are inherent Chinese territories. However, what shall we do to counter those rude and barbarian acts of the Philippines?”

All of which seems to be a load of hot air, and simply there to rally public opinion when news of the attempts to start construction on Scarborough Shoal. Concrete slabs had been spotting on the reef, but Chinese officials have denied any knowledge of activity around the shoal.

The historical evidence that the Chinese say they have is shaky at best. US diplomatic cables that were published by Wikileaks say that the Chinese Ministry of Foriegn Affairs couldn't find any historical evidence to support China's claim that the Spratly Islands had been part of Chinese territory. .

The MFA Department of Treaty and Law Oceans and Law of the Sea Division Deputy Director Yin Wenqiang told a US embassy political officer on August 30, 2008 that "China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters."

However, the US official said "Yin admitted he is not aware of the historical basis for the 'Nine Dashes'" and only mentioned unspecified "Chinese historical documents" that indicate the basis for China's claims on territory west of the Philippines, according to the cable.

When pressed by the embassy, neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor Beijing University could produce a document that specifically supported the claim that the disputed Spratly Islands were in fact Chinese by sovereignty. Indeed, the claims seem to have their origins in China's more recent history rather than the ancient links that Chinese officials prefer to quote whenever the dispute comes up. While the Chinese have been relying on maps drawn up in 1904, a Fillipino map dated 1874 shows that Chinese territory only covered as far as Hainan in the south of China.

Last week, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III cancelled a trip to China, where he was due to attend the China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Trade Expo. The President refused to divulge exact details of what led him to cancel at the time, details later emerged that China had demanded that Manilla withdraw the arbitration case that it had brought to the UN.

A question remains that if, by their own admission, China is such a large country, why do they insist on laying claims to random islands in the South China Seas and continue to tussle with other countries about claims to plots of land along it's borders? In the case of terrirtorial waters around the south of China, Beijing is after control of shipping routes.

Each year, nearly half the world's merchant carriers sail the South China Sea, carrying half the world's crude oil and liquified natural gas. By forcing this much traffic to obtain permission before setting sail would give Beijing considerable power in the area - as well as controlling shipping traffic, air freight would also fall under it's jurisdiction.

Backing down over claims that islands and land technically owned by other countries isn't an option given the CCP's aggressive domestic policy. Being seen as reunifying the Chinese state is good for the CCP at home, but doesn't do much to legitimize their superpower status on the international stage. Rather than rattling it's sabres for the good of it's own reputation, the Chinese would do well to heed the advice that is repeatedly dished out to the US - China should focus on solving it's own internal problems before setting it sights on stirring up trouble outside of it's borders.