Most international scholars dismiss as baseless China’s Nine-Dash Line which demarcates almost the entire South China Sea as being Chinese territory. The international arbital tribunal in The Hague agreed that there were no legitimate grounds for China to claim “historic rights” to the territory.
But Bill Hayton writes for Nikkei Asian Review that Western countries have to take China’s claim seriously, not for the purpose of conceding its validity, but for the purpose of challenging it.
While China’s strategic interests such as defending lines of communication and defending against seaborne attacks are clearly important to Beijing, Western observers place too much emphasis on these factors. China’s actions in the region are based on a very real sense of entitlement to the territory. This feeling is informed by an obsession with ending the country’s “national humiliation” suffered at the hands of Western colonial powers in the 19th and 20th centuries.
This sense of entitlement to the territory means that Beijing will only grow more assertive, especially in the face of military confrontation. If other nations want to balance China’s interests in the region they must first understand China’s objectives.
Hayton argues that, while China’s strategic objectives for the defense of its coast, sea lanes and nuclear deterrent, will endure, the flawed historical narratives on which its claims are based can and should be challenged.
There may be some validity to this argument, but if China continues to erode regional challenges to its claims, as it seems to be doing in the Philippines, then the US, Japan and other Western powers will have little grounds for pushing back, regardless of how historically accurate their argument is.
Why China has no claim for funding from the Global Debt Facility for island building in the South China Sea: https://s3.amazonaws.com/khudes/Twitter12.19.15.4.pdf
The 6 dash line which covered these islands was formulated by the Nationalist Government way before te communists took power
Jeff Wolfers The Hague International Tribunal is not the equivalent of International Law. It is not recognised by UN. UNCLOS does not provide governance for the issue being discussed here and at the same time US is not a signatory to this. The Hague Tribunal is only useful if both parties agree to abide by the ruling which they are not bound to. This is the case in the dispute between Malaysia and Singapore on a small island. And as China did not participate in the Hague Tribunal hearing, any judgement must be flawed.
Despite China’s colonial and foreign imperial occupation undeniably being a true tragedy. It is also undeniable that more Chinese have died as a direct result of the1949 revolutionthan as a result of Europian colonialism and Japanese conquest, by a factor of four. IMHO, China should quit blaming its condition on foreigners. Example in point, Korea was an off-and-on occupied imperial territory of China for centuries and of Japan for less than a hundred years. You do not hear South Koreans blaming their success on either Chinese or Japanese imperialism. And neither North or South Korea is claiming the territory where Korean speakers live in China or Russia, an area larger than the South China Sea and with the same scale of natural resources. In fact, North Korea is an emblematic example of what happens to China’s ‘friends.’ ASEAN beware of ‘friends’ bearing gifts, including China and the US.
John Brown ,you’re right,it written all over the history and story book.
I believe, as off today no nations in the world ever unilaterally claim an entire domain of sea . Rumor spreading that a joint drilling exercises by four countries may challenge the dominance of China in south china sea.
UNCLOS of 1982 must prevail, all disputes will de resolved under this international law!!!
If Paracel of Vietnam and Scarborough island of Philippine were the inherent territory of China, there will be not much dispute in this area. however there was conflict interest were arise between China and Asean members , hence the fought were existed over a century , country territory right is a priority for their citizens. If China not applied tough measures against its neighbors , will they acquired so much of sea of land. The Philippine fishermen was banned to access to Scarborough island before Duterte softened his stand to China.
Might have more sympathy with the Chinese position if it were not challenging the claims of countries which have also suffered greatly at the hands of western imperialism, such as Vietnam and the Phillippines. China’s hurt feelings get a lot of exposure these days, but they seem pretty indifferent to other people’s feelings.
It has really got nothing to do with the faction that prevailed in the Civil war. That’s not what we’re talking about here. The Chinese nation (everyone with Han blood flowing in their veins) was humiliated by the West. Have you already forgotten how you colluded with each other and Japan to carve our motherland like a pie to satisfy your bloody hunger? You raped, pillaged and took advantage of us then left our helpless country utterly gutted then. It’s inexcusable and unforgivable. You can callously mock our vitriol because it was not your country that was subjected to such shame. You’re already alarmed with a Chinese state-owned corporation investing in Hickley, what more if we invaded the British Isles and partitioned it to our own liking. You even went as far as claiming that in the event of an armed conflict, China’s presence in a nuclear power plant could easily grant them the capability to switch off power supply…have you lost your plot? You’re obviously playing silly buggers.
John Brown Not only normal but considered a manifestation of their greatness! Oh how pervasive hypocrisy is in the West.
Stephen Wieprecht China’s global undertakings are usually business in nature. Deals signed and loans granted to other countries are done only after a fair and mutually beneficial consensus has been reached. Credits come with interest and I reckon those countries who borrowed from China were not quite ignorant to think that they didn’t have those. Spot on John Brown. It’s really better than literally taking over a country and foisting their ideology upon them. Nothing is more exploitative than that. The Philippines is a quintessential example of Western exploitation. No wonder that artificial nation can’t move forward regardless of what they do.
Zeny Manalastas If to recover territory that was ours was greedy then I would love to hear your tuppence worth on the Philippines’ illegal claims over Malaysia’s Sabah? Chinese claims over the islands in the South China Sea is irredentism while yours is just arrogation.
Zeny Manalastas How ironic it is to hear that from a Filipino who would’ve most likely fulminated many times about the severe irresolvable corruption in their government? What do such complaints convey? That you are what you accuse us of or even far worse. The state the Philippines is currently in is your own fault. I’ve witnessed first hand how avaricious and self-serving Filipinos could get especially those who belong to the rabble. Philippine hospitality is a only a facade they use to lure foreigners or anyone they perceive to be wealthy so they could extort or snitch from them later on.
John Brown yeah, good luck with that. there are situations where we can do things to make the world better, and there are situations that we can not do things about. You want to relocate over 300 million people? What’s your plan. Native Am. here do deserve to be treated much better now.
How is China controlling and exploiting all the oil, fishing, and other resources in the area going to benefit the other nations? a fair and reasonable extensions of the borders out into the sea leaves all the nations with money coming in which can be invested in the their economirs creating Global demand for a global economy.
John Brown they are still sticking it to them. how does taking advantage the same way anyone else would do it make Them morally Superior Pacific
Oh you are talking about island build by Vietnam, those were washed off by storm not long ago… but sadly Chinese build island stood strong.
Stephen Wieprecht The interest they charge to Cambodia is FAR LESS than the cost of war and destruction in the Middle East from "freedom and democracy"
Stephen Wieprecht That is just wonderful, I’m glad you have a sense of morality, so, please tell me when are you moving back to Europe? Since your ancestor came from there and you killed off the native and took thier land.
I think its time you stop "bully" those people and do whats right.
Jeff Wolfers who the hell is international law? who wrote it and what countries are represented???