Survival Space

Contradictory claims crisscross the South china Sea, surrounded by what were, until the recent Asian financial crisis, some of the world’s fastest developing nations. Overfishing exhausts catches close to shorelines here, and economic growth has outpaced existing oil supplies. Countries claim sovereignty over rocks, shoals, and reefs to establish national outposts for asserting ownership of fishing grounds and petroleum believed to lie beneath.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, countries may designate areas within 200 nautical miles of their coasts as exclusive economic zones, but across the South China Sea, especially in the Spratly islands, zones overlap. They also intersect historical claims by the Philippines, Vietnam, and China and Taiwan – the latter both advancing the same boundaries.

While diplomats talk, navies raise flags, arest fishermen, blockade oil rigs, and sometimes fire shots. In 1988 China sank Vietnamese ships, killing at least 70 sailors, before taking several of the Spratlys – the most serious clash since it seized the Paracel Islands from Vietnam in 1974. Tensions fuel a local arms race as well as fears that China aims to dominate all Asia by controlling the sea. Many experts, however, argue that China’s military is too weak and its leadership too pragmatic to follow that course.

**Thanks to Truc Le for forwarding this document.