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| The Spratly Islands Dispute: Who's On First? |
An introduction/review to "The Spratly Islands Dispute: Who's On First?" written by Daniel J. Dzurek. |
The Spratly Islands Dispute: Who's On First?
by Daniel J. Dzurek
Edited by
Clive Schofield
International Boundaries Research Unit
Suite 3P, Mountjoy Research Centre
University of Durham
Durham DH1 3UR
UK
Tel: UK + 44 (0) 191 374 7701 Fax: UK +44 (0)
Contents
Page
1. Introduction 1
2. Physical Geography 1
3. Definitional Problems 3
3.1 Where are the Spratly islands? 3
3.2 When is Chigua Reef not Chigua Jiao? 4
4. History of Claims 8
4.1 Before the Twentieth Century 8
4.1.1 China 8
4.1.2 Vietnam 9 4.2 Early Twentieth Century 9
4.3 Aftermath of World War II 11 4.3.1 Republican China 11
4.3.2 China's traditional sea boundary line 11
4.3.3 Defining the Philippines 15
4.4 The San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1951 15
4.4.1 Philippines 15
4.4.2 Vietnam 15
4.4.3 Taiwan 16
4.4.4 People's Republic of China 16 4.5 Claims by Meads and Cloma, 1950s 17
4.5.1 Vietnam 18
4.6 The Oil Rush: 1958 to 1987 18
4.6.1 People's Republic of China 19
4.6.2 Taiwan 20
4.6.3 A United Vietnam 20
4.6.4 The Philippine Presidential Decree of 1978 21
4.6.5 Malaysia's Continental Shelf Claim, 1979 22
4.6.6 Brunei 22
4.7 The Battle of Fiery Cross Reef, 1988 23
5. Recent Developments 25
5.1 1990-91 - Indonesian Workshops Begin 26
5.2 1992 - PRC Territorial Sea Law and Manila Declaration 26
5.3 1993 - Oil Exploration and an EEZ for Brunei 29
5.4 1994 - Oil Company Surrogates 31
5.5 1995 - PRC Occupies Mischief Reef 37
5.6 1996 - PRC Delimits Straight Baselines and
Ratifies the UN Convention 45
6. Summary of National Claims
6.1 Brunei
6.2 China
6.2.1 People's Republic of China
6.2.2 Republic of China on Taiwan
6.3 Malaysia
6.4 Philippines
6.5 Vietnam
7. Relevant International Legal Principles
7.1 Establishing Sovereignty over Islands
7.1.1 Modes of territorial acquisition
7.1.2 Other legal considerations
7.1.3 Fallacious legal arguments
7.2 Island or Rock?
8. Conclusions
Proclamations and Legislation
Selected Bibliography
Tables and Figures
Figure 1: South China Sea: Selected Claims/Oil and Gas Resources 2
Figure 2: The Present Situation in the Truong Sa Archipelago (Vietnam) 5
Figure 3: Chinese Installation on Kennan Reef 7
Figure 4: Chinese Installation on Gaven Reef 24
Figure 5: South China Sea: Claims and Outposts in the Spratly Island Region 38
Table 1: Geographic Coordinates of Fiery Cross Reef 6
Table 2: Selected Spratly Island Place Names 56
Table 3: Distances Between Occupied Spratly Features 58
1. Introduction
The area of the Spratly islands 1 in the South China Sea is the most contested place on the planet. It includes both sovereignty and jurisdictional (boundary) disputes. The reference of this monograph's title to the Laurel and Hardy comic routine hints at the chronic miscommunication among the claimants. It also alludes to the allegation of 'discovery' that underlies several sovereignty assertions and to the sequential occupation of military outposts by the claimants. Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan,2 and Vietnam claim part or all of the area. All of the countries except Brunei claim some of the islands and reefs.3 Matters are complicated because there is no agreed definition of the 'Spratly islands', and international law is ambiguous about the definition of islands and the resolution of conflicting sovereignty and jurisdictional claims. The Spratly islands dispute is aggravated by historical animosity, other land and maritime boundary disputes among the claimants, and the possibility of oil and gas deposits near the islands.
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