My paper’s topic will be focused on the historical context of China and its maritime disputes in the South and East China Sea, particularly with the ongoing dispute between the Spratly, Paracel Islands in the South China Sea and Diaoyo/Senkaku Island in the East China Sea. Currently, there are six countries that lay overlapping claims to these islands, an area that is rich in natural resources and worth trillions of dollars of global trade flow. As China seeks to expand its maritime presence in the region, they have been met by growing assertiveness from regional claimants like Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The historical context between these territorial disputes are rather complicated, especially since it involves many nations in
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The nations that are involved in these disputes are Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan, and the main contender, China. China claims by far the largest portion of territory in the South China Sea and both the island’s as defined by the “nine-dash line”, as shown in the picture I posted on the left, provided by an article from the BBC News.
The Chinese government argued that their right on both the islands’, goes back centuries to when the Paracel and Spratly island chains were regarded as integral parts of the Chinese nation and proved their claim base on a map from 1947, called the Nanhai Zhudao (image shown on the right), that details their historic claims. However, Vietnam denies China’s historical claim, they argued that despite their historical account, China had never claimed sovereignty over the …show more content…
While the South China Sea Island disputes involve more nations, the dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyo/Senkaku Islands can arguably be just as complex. The issue over the islands can be traced back since the end of the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, with Japan’s defeat in WWII and Cold War geopolitics also adding to the complexity of the claims over the islands. Historically, Japan based their claim on the islands base on the fact that they had erected a sovereignty marker and formally incorporated the islands into Japanese territory in January, 14, 1895. To also further their claim, Japan argued that when they had renounced their claims to a number of territories and islands, including Taiwan in the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, the islands that came under U.S. trusteeship were returned to them in 1971 under the Okinawa reversion deal. Japan says China had raised no objections to the San Francisco deal and it has been only since the 1970s, when the issue of oil resources in the area emerged, that the Chinese government began pressing their claims. While China denies Japan’s argument, they claim the islands based on its usage as Taiwan’s fishing ground since ancient times and when Taiwan was returned in the Treaty of San Francisco, the islands should have also returned to them as
The nations that are involved in these disputes are Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan, and the main contender, China. China claims by far the largest portion of territory in the South China Sea and both the island’s as defined by the “nine-dash line”, as shown in the picture I posted on the left, provided by an article from the BBC News.
The Chinese government argued that their right on both the islands’, goes back centuries to when the Paracel and Spratly island chains were regarded as integral parts of the Chinese nation and proved their claim base on a map from 1947, called the Nanhai Zhudao (image shown on the right), that details their historic claims. However, Vietnam denies China’s historical claim, they argued that despite their historical account, China had never claimed sovereignty over the …show more content…
While the South China Sea Island disputes involve more nations, the dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyo/Senkaku Islands can arguably be just as complex. The issue over the islands can be traced back since the end of the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, with Japan’s defeat in WWII and Cold War geopolitics also adding to the complexity of the claims over the islands. Historically, Japan based their claim on the islands base on the fact that they had erected a sovereignty marker and formally incorporated the islands into Japanese territory in January, 14, 1895. To also further their claim, Japan argued that when they had renounced their claims to a number of territories and islands, including Taiwan in the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, the islands that came under U.S. trusteeship were returned to them in 1971 under the Okinawa reversion deal. Japan says China had raised no objections to the San Francisco deal and it has been only since the 1970s, when the issue of oil resources in the area emerged, that the Chinese government began pressing their claims. While China denies Japan’s argument, they claim the islands based on its usage as Taiwan’s fishing ground since ancient times and when Taiwan was returned in the Treaty of San Francisco, the islands should have also returned to them as