• Ted
• Ted 1

Spratly Islands

Table of contents

1 Geography and economic development 2 Colonization 3 Political dispute 4 External links

Geography and economic development

• Coordinates: 8 38 N, 111 55 E
• Area (land): less than 5 sq km
  • note: includes 100 or so islets, coral reefs, and sea mounts scattered over an area of nearly 410,000 sq km of the central South China Sea
• Coastline: 926 km
• Climate: tropical
• Terrain: flat
• Elevation extremes:
  • lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  • highest point: unnamed location on Southwest Cay 4 m
• Natural hazards: typhoons; serious maritime hazard because of numerous reefs and shoals

Natural resources include fish, guano, undetermined oil and natural gas potential. Economic activity is limited to commercial fishing. The proximity to nearby oil- and gas-producing sedimentary basins suggests the potential for oil and gas deposits, but the region is largely unexplored, and there are no reliable estimates of potential reserves. Commercial exploitation has yet to be developed. The Spratly Islands have no ports or harbors but it has four airports. This islands are strategically located near several primary shipping lanes.

Colonization

France occupied a number of the Spratly Islands, including Itu Aba, in the nineteen thirties and administered them as part of French Indochina but were displaced by the Japanese during World War II, who used the islands as a submarine base for its invasion of Southeast Asia. Following the defeat of Japan, the Kuomintang claimed Itu Aba but did not occupy the island. Japan renounced all claims to the islands in the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty but there was no accompanying declaration announcing sovereignty over the region.

Political dispute

But the claimants to sovereignty have not awarded offshore concessions in the Spratlys for fear of provoking a clash with the other countries also claiming sovereignty over the area. Foreign companies have not made any commitments to explore the area until the territorial dispute is settled or the claimants come to terms on joint development.

If the prospect of large reservoirs of oil are not enough to tempt nations into action over the Spratly Islands, the fact the South China Sea is one of the world’s most productive areas for commercial fishing would further persuade littoral states to press their sovereignty claims. In 1988, for example, the South China Sea accounted for eight percent of the total world catch, a figure which was fully expected to rise. In fact, the PRC has predicted that the South China Sea holds combined fishing and oil and gas resources worth one trillion dollars. There have already been numerous clashes between the Philippines and other nations (particularly the PRC) over foreign fishing vessels in its EEZ and the media regularly reports the arrest of Chinese fisherman.

To further underscore the global importance of the South China Sea and the Spratly Islands, the region is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. During the 1980s, at least two hundred and seventy ships passed through the Spratly Islands region every day and currently more than half of the world’s supertanker traffic (by tonnage) passes through the regions waters every year. Tanker traffic through the South China Sea is over three times greater than through the Suez Canal and five times more than the Panama Canal and twenty five percent of the world’s crude oil passes through the South China Sea.

There have been suggestions that the PRC has annexed and occupied islands not for resource exploitation but rather for surveillance reasons. For example, Mischief Reef would be an ideal site from which to observe United States naval vessels travelling through western Philippine waters. The PRC's invasion of the Spratly's may be aimed at opposing the ROC rather than the Philippines as the Spratly's lie across water essential to the ROC.

There have been occasional clashes between opposing navies over the Spratly Islands, including incidents in 1974 when South Vietnam lost control of the Paracel Islands to the PRC following a short naval battle (the Saigon government allowed western oil companies to explore in the area), in 1978 when China annexed six islets in a region controlled by Vietnam and on 10 April 1983 a German yacht was sunk after being fired upon in the Spratlys. There has been no indication of responsibility regarding this action.

In response to growing concerns by coastal states regarding encroachments by foreign vessels on their natural resources, the United Nations convened the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982 to determine the issue of international sea boundaries. In response to these concerns, it was resolved that a coastal state could claim two hundred nautical miles of jurisdiction beyond its land boundaries. However UNCLOS failed to address the issue of how to adjudicate on overlapping claims and so the future of the islands remains clouded.

In 1984, Brunei established an exclusive fishing zone, which encompasses Louisa Reef in the southern Spratly Islands, but has not publicly claimed the island.

In 1988 the PRC and Vietnam again clashed at sea over possession of Johnson Reef in the Spratlys, Chinese gunboats sank Vietnamese transport ships supporting a landing party of Vietnamese soldiers. The two countries normalized relations in 1991, and President Jiang Zemin subsequently made two trips to Vietnam. The two nations however still remain at loggerheads over the Spratlys.

In 1992 the PRC and Vietnam granted oil exploration contracts to U.S. oil companies covering areas in the Spratlys which overlapped. In May of that year China National Offshore Oil Corporation ("CNOOC") and Crestone Energy, based in Denver, Colorado in the United States of America, signed a cooperation contract to jointly explore the 25,155-sq km Wan'an Bei-21 block in the Spratly area of the southwest portion of the South China Sea. CNOOC was to provide seismic and other data covering the contract area, which lies under 300-700 meters of water 1,764 kilometres south-southwest of Hong Kong. Crestone agreed to cover all costs and conduct more seismic surveys and drilling in the area. The contract was extended in 1999 after Crestone failed to complete the exploration. Crestone's Wan'an Bei-21 contract in part covered Vietnam's blocks 133 and 134, where PetroVietnam and ConocoPhillips Vietnam Exploration & Production, a unit of ConocoPhillips, agreed to jointly evaluate prospects in April 1992. This led to a confrontation between China and Vietnam, with each demanding that the other cancel its contract. The two countries have quietened down about the dispute recently.

Further escalation occurred in early 1995 when the Philippines discovered a primitive PRC military structure on Mischief Reef, one hundred and thirty nautical miles off the coast of Palawan, leading the Philippines government to issue a formal protest over PRC occupation of the reef on 8 February and the Philippine navy to arrest sixty two Chinese fisherman at Half Moon Shoal, eighty kilometres from Palawan. A week later, then Philippine President Fidel Ramos ordered military forces in the region strengthened following confirmation from surveillance pictures that the structures were of military design, refuting the official PRC claim that the structures were shelters for fishermen.

Following this dispute an ASEAN brokered agreement was reached between the PRC and ASEAN member nations whereby a nation would inform the others of any military movement within the disputed territory and that there would be no further construction on any feature. This agreement was promptly violated by the PRC and Malaysia; seven PRC naval vessels entered the area to repair `fishing shelters' in Panganiban Reef that the PRC claimed had been damaged by storms and Malaysia erected a structure on Investigator Shoal and landed at Rizal Reef (both situated within the Philippines EEZ). In response the Philippines lodged formal protests, demanded the removal of the structures, increased naval patrols in Kalayaan and issued invitations to American politicians to inspect the PRC bases by plane.

By 1998 the Spratly Islands confrontation was listed as one of eight `flashpoints' around the world which had the potential for conflict as the PRC continued its creeping annexation of the islands, placing sovereignty markers or buoys on First and Second Thomas Shoals, Pennsylvania Shoal, Half Moon Shoal, and Sabina and Jackson Atoll. By late 1998, PRC bases had surrounded Philippine outposts and a British Royal Navy Commander analysed pictures of the Chinese structures and announced that PRC "appeared to be preparing for war." The relationship between Manila and Beijing had thus deteriorated to the point where war seemed imminent.

In the early 21st century, as part of foreign policy initiatives known as the new security concept and China's peaceful rise, the People's Republic of China became much less confrontational about the Spratlys. As such, the People's Republic of China recently held talks with ASEAN countries aimed at realizing a proposal for a free trade area with the 10 members. The PRC and ASEAN also have been engaged in talks to create a code of conduct aimed at easing tensions in the disputed islands. On 5 March 2002, an agreement was reached, setting forth the desire of the claimant nations to resolve the problem of soverignty 'without further use of force', although cynics have claimed that this agreement falls far short of the legally binding code of conduct they feel is necessary. The claimants in November 2002 signed the "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea," which has eased tensions but falls short of a legally binding "code of conduct."

External links

• Detailed large map
• Diagramatic indications of Occupation

Source | Copyright