South China Sea by Johnny Harris

1:47 The Selden Map Scholars studying the map after its rediscovery have put forward competing theories as to its provenance. Generally it is agreed that the map was made sometime after 1606 and before 1624. The historian Timothy Brook favors an earlier date, based on his argument that John Saris obtained the map in 1608 and brought it back to England in October 1609.[5] Like many Europeans in the late 16th and early 17th century, Saris was interested in Chinese maps and subsequently obtained a different map of China, famously published by Samuel Purchas.[6] Robert Batchelor argues for a later date of around 1619, noting that certain features on the map, such as the detailed depiction of two landings on Taiwan, indicate knowledge not held prior to the 1610s.[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selden_Map — The International Journal for the History of Cartography Volume 65, 2013 - Issue 1 The map was likely commissioned by a wealthy Chinese merchant, possibly Li Dan, who had significant influence in maritime trade https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03085694.2013.731203#d1e449 — 2:30 Chinese History of Naval Exploration Notable Ming achievements include the refurbishment of the Great Wall to its greatest glory, large naval expeditions, vibrant maritime trade, and the rise of a heavily monetized economy. Vital cultural achievements included the production of exceptional—and often colorful—porcelains, paintings, lacquers, and textiles, which created a dazzling visual world. The rise of the novel as a popular literary genre, accompanied by affordable illustrated books, brought literature to many. As a result of cultural achievements and economic achievements, the Ming saw a larger consumer base for luxury goods than any earlier period. https://asia-archive.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/explore-by-dynasty/ming-dynasty/ — 3:15 Chinese Artifacts found on Islands The Chinese have lived on the Xisha and Nansha islands since the Tang and Song dynasties, as evidenced by recent discoveries at the Xisha Islands of "ruins of living quarters, pottery and porcelain utensils, iron knives, iron cooking pots and other articles of daily use belonging to the Tang and Song dynasties."21 The Chinese Government has exercised jurisdiction over Xisha and Nansha since the ninth century, along with the exploitation and development of the islands. https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1644&context=jil — Chinese activities in the South China Sea date back over 2,000 years. As early as the 2nd century B.C., Chinese sailors explored the South China Sea and discovered what they called Nanhai Zhudao (aka the South China Sea islands). Well documented by both Chinese and foreign historical materials and archaeological digs, there is evidence of ancient crops, wells, houses, temples, tombs, and inscriptions left by Chinese fishermen on some of the islands and reefs of the South China Sea islands. Many foreign documents illustrate clearly that for a lengthy historical duration, only Chinese people lived and worked on these South China Sea islands. Throughout this long process of exploring and developing the South China Sea islands, the Chinese people have gradually increased and improved China's side rights in the South China Sea. These include historic claims, which have in turn been upheld by successive Chinese governments. http://ca.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/sgxw/202009/t20200913_4615002.htm — 3:40 French Indochina By the late 1880s, these territories—Cochinchina, Cambodia, Tonkin, and Annam—were consolidated into French Indochina. — 4:01 France Claims Islands In 1932, France nonetheless formally claimed both the Paracel and Spratly Islands. China and Japan both protested. In 1933, France seized the Paracels and Spratlys, announced their annexation, formally included them in French Indochina, and built a couple of weather stations on them, but did not disturb the numerous Chinese fishermen it found there. In 1938 Japan took the islands from France, garrisoned them, and built a submarine base at Itu Aba (now Taiping / 太平) Island. In 1941, the Japanese Empire made the Paracel and Spratly islands part of Taiwan, then under its rule. https://mepc.org/speeches/diplomacy-rocks-china-and-other-claimants-south-china-sea/#:~:text=In%201956%20North%20Vietnam%20formally,Taiping%20Island%20in%20the%20Spratlys. — 4:32 Japan Takes Over the South China Sea After claiming exclusive rights over several South China Sea archipelagos, Japan occupies the Pratas Islands. The Japanese Imperial Navy lands on the Spratlys in December 1938 and invades Hainan Island the following February. Japan’s moves follow the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 1937—a battle between the Republic of China’s National Revolutionary Army and the Japanese Imperial Army—which marks the Japanese invasion of China. Japan’s military foray into the South China Sea [PDF] takes place during a decade in which France’s Indochina forces have also been present in the area, surveying the islands in the early 1930s and occupying the Paracel Islands in 1938. https://www.cfr.org/timeline/chinas-maritime-disputes — Japan occupies, annexes and renames the Spratly Islands "Shinnan Shoto "(New Southern Islands) and places them under the Governor-General of Formosa. Later, the IJN establishes a seaplane base and a submarine base at Itu Aba (Nagashima -"Long Island") the largest of the Spratly Islands. http://www.combinedfleet.com/SouthChinaSea_t.htm — 5:44 Vietnam’s Claim In 1932 French Indochina announced the annexation of the Paracels and established a weather station there. Japan occupied some of the islands during World War II (1939–45) but later withdrew and, in 1951, renounced its claims there. By 1947 Chinese troops occupied Woody Island, the main island of the Amphitrite group. On Prattle Island, the largest of the Crescent group, the original weather station continued to be operated by French Indochina and its successor, Vietnam. With the political separation of the two Chinas and Vietnams, the number of claimants doubled: while the People’s Republic of China and South Vietnam actually occupied the islands, Taiwan and North Vietnam declared themselves the heirs of legitimate Chinese and Vietnamese claims. The discovery of oil deposits under the South China Sea led to a crisis early in 1974 when, in reaction to Vietnamese contracts with foreign oil companies, China attacked the islands from sea and air, captured the weather station crew, and assumed control of the entire archipelago. In the 1980s the Paracels, still occupied by China, remained a subject of contention. https://www.britannica.com/place/Paracel-Islands —- 6:10 The Free Territory of Freedomland In 1946, Vice President Elpidio Quirino reiterated that the Southern Islands, the forerunner name for Kalayaan, as part of the Philippines. In 1947, Tomas Cloma, a Filipino adventurer and a fishing magnate, discovered a group of several uninhabited and unoccupied islands/islets in the vastness of the Luzon Sea also called the South China Sea. On May 11, 1956, together with 40 men, Tomas Cloma and his brother Filemon took formal possession of the islands, lying some 380 miles west of the southern end of Palawan and named it “Free Territory of Freedomland.” Four days later on May 15, 1956, Cloma issued and posted copies of his “Notice to the Whole World” on each of the islands as a decisive manifestation of unwavering claim over the territory. Then on May 31, 1956, Tomas Cloma declared the establishment of the Free Territory of Freedomland, ten days after he sent his second representation to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, informing the latter that the territory. On July 6, 1956, Cloma declared to the whole world his claim and the establishment of a separate government for the “Free Territory of Freedomland” with its capital on Flat Island (Patag Island). His declaration was met with violent and unfriendly reactions from several neighboring countries especially the Republic of China (ROC; on Taiwan since 1949) when on September 24, 1956 it effectively garrisoned the nearby island of Itu Aba and intercepted Cloma’s men and vessels found within its immediate waters. Unable to surmount the difficulties and pressure, he ceded his claim to the Philippines for one peso.... https://www.kalayaanpalawan.gov.ph/about.html — 6:25 Philippines Take Over Freedomland In the 1970s, after being jailed by the Filipine dictator Ferdinand Marcos for being popularly called “Admiral”, Cloma ‘ceded’ his claim to the Filipine government for one peso. https://www.defactoborders.org/places/spratly-islands/freedom-for-tomas-cloma – – – In 1974, Tomas Cloma formally relinquished his claim to the Kalayaan Island group to the Philippine government of Ferdinand Marcos. President Marcos in turn decreed in 1978 that this island group (a subset of the Spratlys archipelago) was annexed to Palawan Province. The Philippines eventually occupied eight islands in the Spratlys, all but one of which was within the Kalayaan Group. https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=oclj — 9:58 China Sends the Navy Bad weather delayed the expeditions but after it passed, one group of ships, including the minesweeper Yongxing (formerly the USS Embattle) and the Zhongjian (formerly LST-716) and the Fubo, sailed to Woody Island in the Paracels, arriving on 24 November. Another, including the Taiping (formerly the USS Decker) and Zhongye (formerly LST-1056) sailed to Itu Aba, arriving on 12 December. For the first time in recorded history, a Chinese official set foot on one of the Spratly islands. https://amti.csis.org/calm-and-storm-the-south-china-sea-after-the-second-world-war/ – – – — 10:12 Chinese Navy of American Ships For about a year though, from late 1945 until late 1946, calm prevailed in the South China Sea. None of the features was occupied by any government. The French were too busy attempting to retake control of Indochina, the Philippines was still a US colony and the British and Americans regarded the reefs and rocks as little more than a danger to shipping. The Republic of China Navy (and before it, that of the Qing Dynasty) had never had the capacity to project power more than a couple of miles offshore and had been all but destroyed following the Japanese invasion in 1937. A 1947 US naval intelligence report noted, somewhat acidly, that, “from 1938 to 1945, the Chinese maintained a navy without ships”.[8] The serenity did not last. During the war the British and then the US navies had begun training up Chinese naval crews. In spring 1945 Washington approved the transfer of two destroyers, four minesweepers and two patrol craft to the ROC. The ships were sent to Miami for refitting where they were joined by over a thousand Chinese sailors. In the late spring of 1946, those trained crews sailed the ships back to China.[9] There they joined a former British corvette HMS Petunia which, in January 1946, had become the ROC Ship Fubo. By November 1946, the RoC navy included 41 older Chinese ships plus 82 transferred from the US and 9 from the UK.[18] The vast majority were small patrol boats and landing craft but a few were large enough to make the journey to the archipelagos. https://amti.csis.org/calm-and-storm-the-south-china-sea-after-the-second-world-war/ — 11:01 11 Dash Line Official Map China, under the rule of the nationalist Kuomintang party, demarcates its territorial claims in the South China Sea with an eleven-dash line on a map. The claim covers the majority of the area, including the Pratas Islands, the Macclesfield Bank, and the Paracel and Spratly Islands, which China regained from Japan after World War II. In 1949, Communist leader Mao Zedong declares the creation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In 1953, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-led government removes the portion encompassing the Gulf of Tonkin, simplifying the border to nine dashes. To this day, China invokes the nine-dash line as the historical basis for its territorial claims in the South China Sea. https://www.cfr.org/timeline/chinas-maritime-disputes — 12:36 ROC Thinks US Might Protect them in Taiwan Chang argued that Taiwan’s subtropical climate, abundant resources and advanced infrastructure left behind by the Japanese would be able to support a massive population influx. The Taiwan Strait would make it difficult for the People’s Liberation Army to mount an immediate attack, and the US would be more likely to protect such a strategic location. https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2016/12/04/2003660529 — 13:42 11 Dashes Become 9 In 1952, the 11-dash line became the nine-dash line, as China gave up its claims over the Gulf of Tonkin during the time of cordial relationship between China's Mao Zedong and Vietnam. In 1953, two dashes were removed from the 11-dash line as the territorial title for the Bach Long Vi Island was transferred from China to Vietnam. The first two lines lie with the Gulf of Tonkin, bordered by Vietnam and China. https://www.thegeostrata.com/post/11-dash-line-the-geopolitical-lines-of-conflict-in-the-south-china-sea — 14:03 Tawian Takes Taiping Island From 1946 to 1950, Chinese nationalist forces maintained a garrison on Taiping Island, the only habitable island in the Spratlys. This military presence was reestablished by Taipei in 1956 in response to the activities of a Filipino lawyer and businessman, Tomás Cloma. https://mepc.org/speeches/diplomacy-rocks-china-and-other-claimants-south-china-sea/#:~:text=In%201956%20North%20Vietnam%20formally,Taiping%20Island%20in%20the%20Spratlys. — 14:22 Oil is Deicovered in SCS The discovery of oil deposits under the South China Sea led to a crisis early in 1974 when, in reaction to Vietnamese contracts with foreign oil companies, China attacked the islands from sea and air, captured the weather station crew, and assumed control of the entire archipelago. https://www.britannica.com/place/Paracel-Islands — 14:44 Offshore Drilling Conflicts In the 1970s, the promise of offshore oil intensified the dispute in the South China Sea. In mid-1973, Saigon granted energy exploration rights to Western companies and conducted geological surveys of the waters near the Crescent Group. That year, Beijing explicitly claimed the maritime resources present in waters adjacent to Chinese territory. China, too, began drilling an oil well on Woody Island in December 1973. 10 The convergence of geopolitics, economics, and competing territorial claims soon drew China and South Vietnam into an escalating crisis. https://www.andrewerickson.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Yoshihara_Toshi_The-1974-Paracels-Sea-Battle-A-Campaign-Appraisal_NWCR_2016-Spring_41-65.pdf — 15:04 China Takes Paracels from Vietnam In 1974, the Chinese seized the Paracels from Vietnam, killing more than 70 Vietnamese troops. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13748349 — 16:08 UNCLOS The UNCLOS replaces the older and weaker ‘freedom of the seas‘ concept, dating from the 17th century: national rights were limited to a specified belt of water extending from a nation’s coastlines, usually three nautical miles, according to the ‘cannon shot’ rule developed by the Dutch jurist Cornelius van Bynkershoek. All waters beyond national boundaries were considered international waters: free to all nations, but belonging to none of them (the mare liberum principle promulgated by Grotius). In the early 20th century, some nations expressed their desire to extend national claims: to include mineral resources, to protect fish stocks, and to provide the means to enforce pollution controls. https://www.imoa.ph/treaties/unclos/unclos-history/ — UN Begins Enforcing UNCLOS The issue of varying claims of territorial waters was raised in the UN in 1967 by Arvid Pardo, of Malta, and in 1973 the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea was convened in New York. In an attempt to reduce the possibility of groups of nation-states dominating the negotiations, the conference used a consensus process rather than majority vote. With more than 160 nations participating, the conference lasted until 1982. The resulting convention came into force on November 16, 1994, one year after the sixtieth state, Guyana, ratified the treaty. The convention introduced a number of provisions. The most significant issues covered were setting limits, navigation, archipelagic status and transit regimes, exclusive economic zones (EEZs), continental shelf jurisdiction, deep seabed mining, the exploitation regime, protection of the marine environment, scientific research, and settlement of disputes. https://www.imoa.ph/treaties/unclos/unclos-history/ — 13:30 UNCLOS and EEZs Exclusive economic zones (EEZs) These extend from the edge of the territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres; 230 miles) from the baseline. Within this area, the coastal nation has sole exploitation rights over all natural resources. In casual use, the term may include the territorial sea and even the continental shelf. The EEZs were introduced to halt the increasingly heated clashes over fishing rights, although oil was also becoming important. The success of an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 1947 was soon repeated elsewhere in the world, and by 1970 it was technically feasible to operate in waters 4000 metres deep. Foreign nations have the freedom of navigation and overflight, subject to the regulation of the coastal states. Foreign states may also lay submarine pipes and cables. https://www.imoa.ph/treaties/unclos/unclos-history/ — 16:50 UNCLOS Never Ratified by USA https://www.curtis.com/glossary/public-international-law/unclos#:~:text=Who%20did%20not%20sign%20UNCLOS,Venezuela — 16:52 UNCLOS enforced by USA but not enforced on USA On July 9, 1982, after three series of multilateral conferences spanning decades of rigorous negotiations, President Ronald Reagan formally announced that the United States would not sign the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), on the grounds that the agreement would curtail U.S. freedoms to conduct mining operations along the deep seabed. While President Reagan praised many of the treaty’s central provisions, including freedoms of navigation and overflight, he opposed the seabed mining regime expressed within Part XI of the treaty, stating: We recognize that world demand and markets currently do not justify commercial development of deep seabed mineral resources, and it is not clear when such development will be justified… When such factors become favorable, however, the deep seabed represents a potentially important source of strategic and other minerals. The aim of the United States in this regard has been to establish with other nations an order that would allow exploration and development under reasonable terms and conditions.¹ Among other reasons for refusing to sign the agreement was his administration’s disagreement with technology transfer rights to the international seabed mining regime and a lack of de facto veto power for the United States within its governing body.² So on December 10, 1982, the United Nations rolled out UNCLOS in Montego Bay, Jamaica without the United States. As of 2023, Washington remains a non-participant in the Convention despite its close adherence to most the treaty’s provisions. https://saisreview.sais.jhu.edu/unmoored-from-the-un-the-struggle-to-ratify-unclos-in-the-united-states/ — 18:24 Taiwan’s 11 Dash Line View Taiwan's claim here. https://amti.csis.org/maritime-claims-map/ — — 18:38 Philippines Claims China is Violating their EEZ In 2016, the Philippines took China to court of arbitration for violating UNCLOS rules and their EEZ. China declined to participate, said the waters were theirs and that the Philippines had no authority to force them into arbitration. They also claimed the court had no jurisdiction to rule on their territory. The court ruled that UNCLOS rules are clear, historic rights don’t matter at all, in fact many parties wanted to include historic rights, not just China. But they all agreed to these rules and extinguished their historic rights when they signed UNCLOS in favor of 200 mile EEZs. https://pcacases.com/web/sendAttach/1801 — 18:45 China Says they don’t care about UNCLOS rules in Chinese Waters Position Paper of the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Matter of Jurisdiction in the South China Sea Arbitration Initiated by the Republic of the Philippines 2014/12/07 https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/nanhai/eng/snhwtlcwj_1/201606/t20160602_8527286.htm —