China claims 80% of the South China Sea!

China Claims 80% of South China Sea based on UNCLOS

Based on the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/closindx.htm), China makes a ridiculous claim of 200 miles Exclusive Economic Zone around the various archipelagos in the South China Sea. It ends up taking up virtually the entire region (see map).


But in fact, UNCLOS does not say that any island can claim 200 miles. UNCLOS says that 12 miles can be claimed for small islands that don’t have local population and economic life. This is the case with virtually all the islands being disputed on Paracel and Spratly archipelagos. It is obvious that China’s claim of 200 miles is pure greed stemming from its hegemonic ambitions and not at all founded on UNCLOS.

UNCLOS stipulates that when there are overlapping claims present, a fair resolution must be reached by the claimants. Yet, China thinks that it can take little tiny islands and claim as much of the sea as the coastline of a country. China knows that it is not fair, that is why it consistently refuses to settle the matter in International Court because it knows that it stands little chance of convincing anyone of its claims. Instead, China resorts to bullying the other parties one a time. But bullying as we know is the greatest indication of lack of self-confidence, which is the case with China when it comes to its claim to the Paracel and Spratly islands.

As a result of China’s greed for proven and unproven resources in the South China Sea, its claims reach nearly to the coast of Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia, with the distance originating from these tiny islands. While China keeps repeating that it wants to peacefully cooperate with its neighbors to develop the region, it secretly and openly continues to carry out projects on the islands that violate the 2002 Code of Conduct without paying much attention to the protests of its counterparts.

China thinks that the South China Sea is Chinese “historic waters,” in fact 80% of it. The 20% that’s left over is for the rest of ASEAN parties involved in the dispute. Even Chinese people who don’t know better than the information supplied by their government ought to look at this math and see that their government is cheating their neighbors.