South China Sea: Still no evidence of historical Chinese claims

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South China Sea: Still no evidence of historical Chinese claims
Bill Hayton
RSIS


A Chinese submarine surfaces in the South China Sea, the focus of regional disputes over island chains and rocky atolls.

Recent arguments repeat a number of commonly-held misunderstandings and do not provide facts in support of Beijing's territorial claims

BANGKOK: -- Two scholars have responded to my call for supporters of Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea to provide verifiable evidence in support of their arguments. However the response of Dr Li Dexia and Tan Keng Tat (http://www.rsis.edu.sg/rsis-publication/rsis/co14165) shows just how difficult this task is likely to be. They are unable to prove any Chinese claim to any specific island made before 1909, and none of their assertions contain verifiable evidence. Some are demonstrably untrue.

Where is the proof that any pre-modern Chinese officials laid any claim to any feature in the South China Sea? There is no evidence that Zheng He or any of the other Ming Dynasty admirals did so. The same is true of the Mongol expeditionary forces a century before. Some 500 years ago seafarers generally sailed around the edges of the Sea to avoid the dangers of uncharted reefs that lay at its centre. If the authors know of documents or other evidence that prove otherwise, this is the time to make the exact references public.

Vagueness remains

There are certainly old Chinese texts mentioning "islands" but they are vague in the extreme, unconnected to specific pieces of land and provide no proof of discovery or claim. Some are reports of accounts given by foreigners arriving in China, others refer to mystical places near the entrance to the underworld and others are copies of European maps.

Dr Li and Tan make a number of other specific points. I need to turn to each one in turn.

The authors have failed to convince me that the name "Xisha" - referring to the Paracel Islands - appeared in Chinese documents before the name "West Sand" appeared on Western maps. I am quite prepared to accept that Europeans adopted local names for features but in this case I believe that it was the other way around. I am prepared to be proven wrong - but only if there is evidence.

The assertion that the 1887 agreement between France and China awarded the Paracels and Spratlys to China is patently untrue. The Convention, signed in Beijing on June 26, 1887, specifically concerns only the area of Indochina that French colonialists referred to as "Tonkin" - the northernmost part of what is now Vietnam.

'Conventional wisdom', not historical evidence

I would be interested to know more about the "stone marker" laid in the Paracels by Chinese officials in 1902 and the 1907 Chinese naval expedition to Drummond Island. I have investigated these events and found no corroborating evidence that they actually took place. What original sources do Dr Li and Tan base these assertions upon?

The more I research the Chinese claims the more I find they are based on unreferenced assertions that have been repeated for decades without critical examination. Many of these assertions have become part of the international "conventional wisdom" about the South China Sea. They are found in the paper by Hungdah Chiu and Choon-ho Park to which the authors refer, in the 1976 paper "Disputed Islands in the South China Sea" by Dieter Heinzig, and also in Marwyn Samuels' 1982 book "Contest for the South China Sea" upon which many international scholars have subsequently relied.

Heinzig and Samuels' efforts were pioneering pieces of work, bringing much-needed insight to the subject. But both their accounts relied in large part on articles published in Chinese Communist Party journals following the Chinese occupation of the western half of the Paracel Islands in January 1974.

One was published in the March 1974 edition of The 70s monthly (Ch'i-shi nien-tai yüeh-k'an) and two in the May 1974 edition of Ming Pao monthly. These were clearly not neutral pieces of scholarship: they were intended to justify the invasion.

Selective quotes

In at least two instances in their commentary, authors Li and Tan selectively quote historic documents. The first concerns the letter sent by the Vietnamese prime minister Pham Van Dong to his Chinese counterpart in September 1958 - in response to Beijing's "Declaration on the Territorial Sea". That declaration extended China's claimed territorial waters out to 12 nautical miles. This move was intended to prevent United States ships intervening in support of Taiwanese garrisons on the islands of Jinmen and Mazu, which were then being shelled by Chinese forces.

A second part of the 1958 Declaration asserts China's claim to the features of the South China Sea. The full text of Pham Van Dong's letter to Zhou Enlai ignores this second section while endorsing the first. The full sentence reads "The Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam recognises and approves the declaration made on 4 September 1958 by the Government of the People's Republic of China regarding the decision taken with respect to China's territorial sea." It is true that it does not explicitly reject the Chinese claim, but it does not endorse it either.

The authors also misquote the Cairo Declaration of November 27, 1943 thus: "Japan will also be expelled from ALL other territories which she has taken by violence and greed." This, however, was not the Declaration's true wording.

The actual sentence reads: "Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China. Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed."

There is no mention of any features in the South China Sea except Formosa (Taiwan) and the Pescadores and nothing about the "ownership" of the other territories from which Japan is to be expelled.

Need to break down specific claims

My assertion that "China, Vietnam and the Philippines claim ownership of large groups of islands as if they are single units" is empirically correct. I never said the Philippines claimed the Paracels or that Vietnam claimed Pratas. However both countries, like China, do claim large groups of islands as if they are a single unit.

The Philippines claims a subset of the Spratlys that it calls the Kalayaan Island Group and Vietnam claims the Paracels as the "Hoang Sa" and the Spratlys as the Truong Sa. The South China Sea disputes would become easier to resolve if these grand claims were broken down into specific claims to specific features, backed up with specific evidence.

I am not waving a flag for the Vietnamese, Philippine, French or even the British claims to the features of the South China Sea. I am simply pointing out that the Chinese side has failed to put forward convincing historical evidence for its own assertions.

Rectifying this situation would require proof of actual acts of sovereignty demonstrated by agents of governments. It is my contention that these do not exist on the Chinese side before June 6, 1909, in the case of the Paracels and December 12, 1946, in the Spratlys.

Bill Hayton is the author of "The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia", to be published by Yale University Press imminently. He is also the author of "Vietnam: Rising Dragon".

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/South-China-Sea-Still-no-evidence-of-historical-Ch-30243934.html


-- The Nation 2014-09-24

[Seastallion]

The Spratley Islands are clearly closest to PI than anywhere else. Some of the westernmost islands may be in Malaysian territorial waters. The Paracel Islands appear to be closest to VN.

Obviously there are natural resources to plunder, otherwise China would not be interested.

Why does this story surface now? What is in the offing? While Taiwan and Japan's ally (the US) is busy in Syria, is China going to make a move soon?

Edited September 24, 2014 by Seastallion

[Wat dee]

If they claimed the land was promised by god. That seems to work.

[Shancloudy]

During the 14th Century the King of Brunei give as a gift to his cousin Sultan of Sultunate of Sulu "the Spratly" for helping him to win a battle. The Sultunate State of Sulu is the legal owner of the Spratly but since the Sultan Kiram turnover his territorial and propriety rights of the State to the Republic of the Philippines. The Spratly is within Philippines and connected in the Philippine archipelago with just few kilometres from the province of Palawan of the Philippines.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Shancloudy

[Publicus]

With the open support of Washington the Phils have filed their SCS case against Beijing with the UN Tribunal on the International Law of the Sea and are represented before the Tribunal by a high powered Washington law firm that specializes in the ILOS.

Asean governments and elites are quietly hoping the Phils can neutralize the dragon's heavy breathing against the Phils, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia.

Beijing has refused all entreaties to participate in the proceedings which by now are well underway. Beijing is going to lose by default. It is thus clear that Beijing likes gunboats instead which are much more responsive to the CCP than is the UNILOS or its Tribunal.

One would think that if the CCP Boyz in Beijing believed they had a legal case they could stand on, Beijing's lawyers would take their briefs in to the court and that their briefs would hold up in court, that Beijing would contest the Phils legal case. Beijing's briefs however do not hold up in court so the CCP Boyz and their CCP lawyers are holding firmly on to their briefs.

And let's not forget the Republic of China and many of the references to it in historical documents connect directly to the sovereign national RoC government that sits in Taipei, Taiwan, formerly Formosa. So the CCP Boyz have unjustified and unjustifiable territorial claims against the RoC that governs Taiwan too.

[Ulic]

Why would you do any research when you already have the answer you want.

[Stuart21]

I recall Academica Sinica on Taiwan supporting the Chinese (Nationalists) claim to Taiwan by saying the ren zoo min (original people) came from China - but evidence is thin.

I had aboriginal friends (Orchid Islanders) who could converse quite well with tribes folk from Northern Phillipines in the native language. A DNA study would be most interesting.

[wwest5829]

With the open support of Washington the Phils have filed their SCS case against Beijing with the UN Tribunal on the International Law of the Sea and are represented before the Tribunal by a high powered Washington law firm that specializes in the ILOS.

Asean governments and elites are quietly hoping the Phils can neutralize the dragon's heavy breathing against the Phils, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia.

Beijing has refused all entreaties to participate in the proceedings which by now are well underway. Beijing is going to lose by default. It is thus clear that Beijing likes gunboats instead which are much more responsive to the CCP than is the UNILOS or its Tribunal.

One would think that if the CCP Boyz in Beijing believed they had a legal case they could stand on, Beijing's lawyers would take their briefs in to the court and that their briefs would hold up in court, that Beijing would contest the Phils legal case. Beijing's briefs however do not hold up in court so the CCP Boyz and their CCP lawyers are holding firmly on to their briefs.

And let's not forget the Republic of China and many of the references to it in historical documents connect directly to the sovereign national RoC government that sits in Taipei, Taiwan, formerly Formosa. So the CCP Boyz have unjustified and unjustifiable territorial claims against the RoC that governs Taiwan too.

And as the Chinese curse goes, "may you live in interesting times".

[Publicus]

I think the Chinese learned about gunboat diplomacy from the British during the opium wars. It cost them Hong Kong to learn a valuable lesson.

The Chinese have learned nothing.

The Chinese remain consumed in irredentism and revanchism.

Vengeance.

[ggt]

The evidence of China's claim to the South China Sea...is in the name...and the size of the guns...backing up China's claim to that area...

[MrRobiA]

Here’s China’s submission to the UN General Assembly regarding Vietnam’s claims on the Xisha (Paracel) Islands. Isn’t it strange that the Western Press has not published it?

“In 1959, the Chinese government established the Administration Office for the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands. In January 1974, the Chinese military and people drove the invading army of the Saigon authority of South Vietnam from the Shanhu Island and Ganquan Island of the Xisha Islands and defended China’s territory and sovereignty. The Chinese government enacted the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone in 1992 and published the base points and baselines of the territorial waters of the Xisha Islands in 1996, both of which reaffirm China’s sovereignty over the Xisha Islands and the extent of territorial waters of the islands. In 2012, the Chinese government established the various departments of Sansha city on the Yongxing Island of Xisha Islands.

During a meeting with charge d’affaires ad interim Li Zhimin of the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam on 15 June 1956, Vice Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam Ung Van Khiem solemnly stated that, “according to Vietnamese data, the Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands are historically part of Chinese territory.”

Le Loc, Acting Director of the Asian Department of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, who was present, specifically cited Vietnamese data and pointed out that, “judging from history, these islands were already part of China at the time of the Song Dynasty.“ – China’s Foreign Ministry website, June 8, regarding the HYSY 981 drilling rig in the Xisha Islands.

[RickBradford]

The evidence of China's claim to the South China Sea...is in the name...and the size of the guns...backing up China's claim to that area...

Well, the Vietnamese call it the "East Sea", and I have no doubt that other nations in the region have their own names for it.

[Pete Beale]

I take any claims of firsts from China with a large pinch of south China sea salt, they even claim to have invented football.

[Publicus]

A supposedly private citizens group in Vietnam is circulating a global petition to the UN Atlas of the Oceans body to rename the SCS as the Southeast Asia Sea.

The arguments are strong. For instance, of the 130,000 km of the sea's shores, only 3100 km touch China. The rest of the SCS shoreline touches the ten Asean countries. The sea is the geographic heart of Asean which surrounds it. Et cetera.

Vietnam is also making noises about following the lead of the Philippines by possibly taking Beijing to the UN Tribunal on the International Law of the Sea which Beijing does not recognize. Beijing instead prefers to publish stories at its websites that have zero possibility of surviving the scrutiny of the UNILOS Tribunal and of ILOS specialist lawyers.

It's a standing joke among ILOS experts that they expect any day now to hear from Beijing that its moon rover Jade Rabbit just found a Ming Dynasty map proving conclusively China's ownership of the SCS - and probably of everything else north and south of the equator.

Worst athletes I'd ever seen too. School athletic fields remain idle behind iron fences each evening because the CCP Boyz throughout the PRC don't want citizens grouping together for any reason.

[P45Mustang]

China also claims to have invented the game of golf in the 13th Century.

Ancient pictures ( which haven't been carbon dated...know what I mean ) appear to depict people with golf clubs and small balls.

A map of the South China Sea drawn by the Middle Kingdom has as much credibility as the above.