The South China Sea Disputes: Territorial and Maritime Differences Between the Philippines and China

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/jglobfaul.6.1.0039
• Published date: 01 August 2019
• Date: 01 August 2019
• Pages: 39-61
• Author: Liam Reeves

Journal of Global Faultlines, 2019

Vol. 6, No. 1, 39–61.

39

The South China Sea Disputes: Territorial and Maritime

Differences Between the Philippines and China

Liam Reeves1

Introduction: Timeline and Strategic aims of the Parties

This article will discuss the ongoing dispute in the South China Sea, specifically the legal

issues over territorial and maritime disputes between the Philippines and China. The intro-

duction will lay out the timeline of events and geopolitics in the South China Sea specifically

related to the Spratly archipelago.

In the second section, I will start by discussing the maritime disputes that the 2016

arbitral award tried to address; these will specifically pertain to historic rights and the status

of maritime features in the Spratly Island Archipelago. In the third section, I will discuss the

hypothetical sovereignty over the Spratly islands. As section 3 finishes, I will conclude with

who has the stronger position to claim sovereignty over the Spratlays.

A Brief Timeline

The South China Sea is a body of water located south of China, east of Vietnam and west of

the Philippines. It spans a geographical area of more than 3,500km and is a key trade route

with an estimated three trillion dollars’ worth of trade per year transiting through making it

a key strategic area to control.2 The Spratly islands have become the focal point for the dispute

between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, as controlling them offers many

strategic advantages. This has led some scholars to speculate that ‘whoever dominates the

Spratlys will have regional hegemony in the new millennium.’3

The South China Sea Disputes

Liam Reeves

40

If one could trace back to the moment the disputes first started to arise between

China and the Philippines, it could be approximately dated to the second half of the twenti-

eth century.4 Before World War 2, the Spratly islands were relatively ignored and were con-

sidered somewhat irrelevant in the grand scale of global politics. This changed in 1973 when

a discovery of vast oil reserves off the east coast of Vietnam by Russian seismologists, which

made these insignificant islands ground zero for a dispute for resources. In the following

year, Thomas Cloma, a wealthy entrepreneur from the Philippines, claimed to discover the

Spratlys5 renounced his claim to his home state. This led the way for the Philippines to for-

mally incorporate the islands into Palawan province in the Philippines.6 In 1978, the presi-

dent of the Philippines then went on to extend its EEZ leading to the escalation of already

rampant tensions.7 This led the Philippines and China to perform rival acts of sovereignty,

such as the stationing of troops, the placing of sovereignty markers, and the building of

lighthouses and weather station.8 In 1982, the UN convention of the Law of the Sea was

signed by both the Philippines and China, which created a new line of disputes between the

two nations over maritime entitlements and access to maritime resources. In 1995, the dis-

pute took an aggressive turn when there was a brief naval clash between the Philippines and

China in which China seized the Mischief Reef.9 This aggression continued between the two

nations when in 2002 when the ASEAN countries labelled China’s moves as ‘provocative’

due to a series of incidents which saw China use its military force to drive Filipino ships away

from the Spratlys.10 This aggressive behaviour has continued, up to and after the 2016 Arbitral

award, as China continued to build military bases within Filipino territory in defiance of the

ruling.11 These events lead us to the current day geopolitical standoff.

Overview: Importance to China?

Chinese claims to the Spratlays can be best summed up in the 1947 publishing of the so-called

‘nine dash line’ of which approximately 80% of the South China Sea, including the Spratlys,

are enclosed in.12 It is not clear from this ‘nine dash line’ if China seeks to claim just both land

and maritime territory or whether its position is that it is just land or maritime territory.13

However, what is known is, as of 2018, that China controls seven objects in the Spratly

island chain and the waters surrounding these objects14. China has engaged in forceful