What is it about?
This article shows that the Chinese claim to the rocks and reefs in the South China Sea emerged in several stages. In 1907 the Chinese authorities had no interest in them. This began to change in 1909 but only to include the Paracel Islands. By 1947, however, the claim had been extended south to also include the Spratly Islands. I show how this came about by emphasising the role of ignorance and misunderstanding among Chinese officials, journalists and commentators.
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Why is it important?
This article demonstrates that the Chinese claim to the South China Sea is not ancient but was invented during the 20th century. The South China Sea disputes are a source of endless tension in East and Southeast Asia so by understanding how they emerged we might be able to find better ways to resolve them.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Modern Origins of China’s South China Sea Claims: Maps, Misunderstandings, and the Maritime Geobody, Modern China, May 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0097700418771678.
You can read the full text:
Resources
The Modern Origin of China's claims in the South China Sea
A video of an early version of my argument - given for the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the CSIS think-tank in Washington DC
The original source material upon which this article is based
These .zip files contain scans of newspaper articles and other evidence that helped me to write this article.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
