Blood island china3/12/2023 ![]() ![]() The Nationalists did not regularly occupy the place until 1956. ![]() Two Chinese warships - one called the Taiping - visited Itu Aba in 1946, staking a claim that the Nationalist government held even after fleeing to Taiwan. Concrete pilings extending off a white-sand beach - the ruins of a submarine pier - are a relic of Japan’s brief rule. The Japanese seized them from the French in 1938, but then surrendered them after losing World War II. The “nine-dash line” that China today uses to mark its territory was first on maps drafted in the 1940s by the Nationalist government, led by Chiang Kai-shek.ĭespite claims of ancient historical links, Chinese officials in the first half of the 20th century were barely aware of the shoals and cays that make up the Spratlys until France annexed six of them, including Itu Aba, according to Bill Hayton, the author of “The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia.” That, counterintuitively, bolsters China’s claims today. The claims to the Spratlys predate the civil war that ended with the Communist Party’s triumph and the retreat of the Nationalist forces of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949. “It has been unsuccessful in its attempts to be included in multilateral mechanisms aimed at managing or resolving disputes, such as the ongoing code of conduct negotiations.”Ĭhina makes every effort it can to weaken Taiwan’s voice in international affairs generally, arguing that it is part of Chinese territory, though the Communist government in Beijing has never occupied the island. “Taiwan has remained a marginal player in the dispute,” said Lynn Kuok of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia in Singapore, who has written on Taiwan’s policy in the South China Sea. So did Taiwan, undercutting its own position that it seeks a peaceful resolution of the territorial disputes and a code of conduct that would govern activity in the waters. The same arbitration case that found Itu Aba to be a mere rock also rejected China’s claims in the Spratly Islands, but China simply declared the arbitration panel’s ruling moot. The demotion from being an “island” means that Taiwan can no longer claim exclusive economic control over a wide swath of waters around Itu Aba. ![]() The panel, adjudicating a claim brought by the Philippines against China’s claims, declared it a “rock” instead, meaning it cannot sustain human habitation or economic activity.
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