Smoldering Conflicts in the South China SeaTilman Pradt

ASIEN – Nr. 121 (2011) pp. 59–76

“There are hundreds of small islands in the South China Sea, along with several underwater features, namely, uninhabited islets, shoals, reefs, banks, sands, cays and rocks. According to Workman, these islands mainly consist of coral reefs and are mainly categorised into four groups: the Pratas Islands (Dongsha qundao in Chinese), the Paracel Islands (Xisha qundao in Chinese and Hoang Sa in Vietnamese), the Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha qundao in Chinese) and the Spratly Islands (Nansha qundao in Chinese and Truong Sa in Vietnamese).” (Zou 2009, p. 173)

The South China Sea (SCS) is one of the world’s most important transition routes for commercial shipping. Oil, gas, and minerals are thought to exist in its seabed, and the area is highly disputed because of its unresolved maritime territorial boundaries. China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea for historical reasons, Vietnam claims a large part because of its continental shelf and also due to historical usage, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan claim part of the SCS’s islands and effectively occupy some of them, while Brunei claims its share of the Sea, but wanting without any territorial possessions. When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed that the peaceful resolution of the SCS disputes was an American national interest at last year’s ASEAN Security Summit in Hanoi, she provoked an angry reaction from Beijing. Accordingly, the PRC considers the territorial claims in the SCS as one of China’s core interests along with Taiwan and Tibet (Cerojano, 2010) – indeed, an issue important enough to risk a war over…