Even though the territorial disputes in the South China Sea is nothing new, the recent confrontations among China, the Philippines, and Vietnam have sparked global concerns. It is being feared that the region is becoming a new flashpoint with serious security consequences. Six countries have made territorial claims over the South China Sea or its two major archipelagos-Spratly and Paracel.
1 Many of the so-called "islands" are merely rocky outcroppings or coral reefs that are underwater at high tide, but their strategic and economic importance reach far beyond their actual size. Some 25 percent of the world’s shipping passes through the waters of the South China Sea. Moreover, there is the possibility that the area contains huge amount of oil and gas resources. A Chinese report in 1989 estimated that the area contains more than 100 billion barrels of oil. Since the 1970s, the sovereign disputes over the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos have generated a number of armed conflicts in the South China Sea.
2
Among the six claimants, Taiwan’s (Republic of China) position and attitude deserves particular attention. Taiwan claims sovereignty over both Spratly and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, but it is also the only claimant being excluded from international dialogue mechanisms aiming at resolving the dispute, including the 2002
Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea of ASEAN countries and China, which requires all signatories to stick to the spirit of resolving territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means without resorting to the threat or use of force.
Taiwan’s involvement in the region can be traced back to the 1940s. In October 1946, the Kuomintang (KMT) government in Nanjing sent a naval fleet to the South China Sea to "recover" (as claimed by KMT) the territories occupied by the Japanese during World War II. The fleet navigated the area and landed on a number of islands on the Paracel and Spratly.
3 The following year, the KMT government declared the "eleven-dotted" or "U-shaped" demarcation line in the South China Sea. This claim covers about three- fourths of the entire region and all islands and reefs, including Spratly, Paracel, and Pratas Islands. The KMT government also decided to place
Nansha, the Chinese name for the Spratly, under the administration of Guangdong Province, and started stationing a small number of troops in Itu Aba, the biggest island of the Spratly. During 1948-49, the KMT regime gradually shifted its focus on fighting the Chinese Communists as civil war escalated and lost its control over the South China Sea.
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