East Sea

In “China’s demographic history and future challenges” (special section on Population, Review, X. Peng, 29 July 2011, p. 581), the maps of China show a U-shaped curve enclosing most of the South China Sea and its islands (the Paracels and Spratlys), clearly implying that the colored area within the curve belongs to China. However, these islands are subject to territorial disputes between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan. To show these islands unambiguously as Chinese territory is therefore questionable, especially when they are almost uninhabited and irrelevant to the population study in the Review. The U-shaped curve in the...

A map showing a huge U, submitted in 2009 with diplomatic notes sent to the Commission on The Limit of the Continental Shelf, marks China’s claims in the South China Sea. “At stake are billions of dollars in fishing and mineral rights that all of the parties to the debate each claim as their own,” writes physicist Duong Danh Huy for Asia Sentinel. He analyzes interpretations of the map – as simply targeting the islands, with appropriate territory and exclusive zones, or broader historic rights that would encompass a larger area. For “the ‘historic rights’ argument, to be valid, two...

By François-Xavier Bonnet   Irasec’s Discussion Papers, No. 14, November 2012, 42 pages, www.irasec.com Downloadable for Free:http://www.irasec.com/components/com_irasec/media/upload/DP14-ScarboroughShoal.pdf    Scarborough is the largest atoll in the South China Sea, located some 220 kilometers from the Philippines. The shoal is located inside the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines but is claimed by China as its ancestral territory since the 13th century. The paper considers the strategic importance of the shoal for the two countries. Then, using unpublished records and documents from China, the Philippines, and the United States, the author will show that the two countries claimed Scarborough Shoal in the 1930s, each without...

Speaking to diplomats, businessmen and journalists at the British Foreign Office in November, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia emphasized the need for “norms and principles” in resolving disputes in the South China Sea. Why did President Yudhoyono, who was spending a week in London at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II as the first leader to visit Britain during the year of her Diamond Jubilee, feel that he had to bring up the South China Sea disputes at such a time? After a member of the audience asked what Indonesia, the leading nation in the Association of Southeast Asian...

Beijing has finally achieved its aspiration to be a force to be reckoned with on the high seas. The long-awaited launch of China’s aircraft carrier signaled the incremental readjustment of power relations in East Asia. However, the rise of one power does not necessarily translate to the decline of all others in the vicinity. The rise of China as a naval power will inevitably highlight the indispensability of Japan and prompt Tokyo’s ascent to a position of greater political and military importance in Northeast Asia.  Recently, Professor Robert Farley drew parallels between military conditions today and those in the 1920s...

Chinese territorial claims propel science into choppy waters. Clashes at sea. Disputed borders. It is not the usual stuff of science. But researchers and scientific journals are being pulled into long-simmering border disputes between China and its neighbours. Confrontations involving research vessels are raising tensions in the region, while the Chinese government is being accused of using its scientists’ publications to promote the country’s territorial claims. Mine, all mine: the rush to claim minerals and oil is driving China’s marine ambitions. Source: CHINAFOTOPRESS/GETTY China’s desire to increase its exploitation of the sea is no secret. The country’s 12th five-year plan, which...