About
3 months ago, I reported to the readers about release of a new
geographical
atlas or a map by China,
which showed that country as a continent. The new map, styled in a
vertical fashion, showed China in the map very similar to United
States. The map also showed China's claims on Indian soil as well as
on the South China Sea ( the disputed areas including its numerous
islets and reefs) appear like its national territory. More about the
history of Chinese claims can be accessed here in another blogpost of
mine; Expansionism
not in Chinese DNA.
In
this vertical atlas, Chinese cartographers had put in an imaginary
curve consisting of a 10 dashes covering almost all areas of South
China Sea and claimed that all areas under the line to be Chinese
Territory. To be specific, nine dashes were shown in the South China
Sea while the 10th
was placed near Taiwan, purportedly to signify it as a province of
China. China's so-called nine-dash line claims 90 per cent of the 3.5
million sq km South China Sea in a tongue-shaped encirclement.
Chinese
have produced in support of their claims, some historical facts,
which they claim are true. Chinese claims are mainly concentrated
around five areas ; Dongsha (Pratas), Xisha (Paracel), Zhongsha
(Macclesfield Bank), Nansha (Spratly) and Scarborough Shoal in the
north. China says that it gained "effective jurisdiction"
over waters off the five island groups, when the ancestors of
today's Chinese, first sailed there more than 2,000 years ago. It
says that its naval forces exercised jurisdiction over Dongsha and
Xisha islands during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and that by the Song
(960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, over Zhongsha and Nansha.
Their reach covered all the islands during the Ming (1368-1644) and
Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, establishing China's maritime boundary in
the South China Sea. China has been insisting that Scarborough shoal
is Nanhai island, where Chinese explorer Guo Shoujing built a
celestial observatory in 1279. China also uses the sea voyages of
legendary Admiral Zheng He, from 1405 to 1433 as a basis for its
claims over the South China Sea.
Out of
these island groups, the Paracel islands named as Xisha by China are
also claimed by Vietnam and Philippines lays claim to Spratly
islands that China names as Nansha and also the oil-rich Scarborough
Shoal to the north, as part of Philippine territory. In March 2014,
the Philippines submitted to an international court in the Hague a
4,000-page memorandum disputing China's so-called nine-dash line.
To
support it's case, Philippines now proposes to submit now another lot
of about 60 ancient maps dating back to the Song Dynasty of China as
secondary or corroborating evidence to a United Nations tribunal.
Map
from year 1136 identifying China's farthest southern territory as
Hainan
One of
the maps dates back to year 1136. It identifies Hainan island as
China's farthest southern territory. The rest of the maps show that
since 1636, cartographers from Spain, France, Germany, the United
States, Britain, the Netherlands and the Philippines have drawn one
of the disputed islets in the South China Sea, the oil-rich
Scarborough Shoal, as part of Philippine territory. Most of these
maps are also part of the US Library of Congress' archives.
Philippines says that the maps clearly identify China's southernmost
territory as Hainan island, not James Shoal 1,700km further south
into the South China Sea, or Nansha islands in the Spratly chain of
islets, atolls, reefs and shoals.
MAP OF
THE PHILIPPINES (1808): Published in Madrid from the surveys of the
Malaspina Expedition.
An
associate justice of the Supreme Court in Philippines,Mr Antonio
Carpio, says that China itself had also placed Nanhai in the Paracel
islands 722km from Scarborough. Therefore it is "quite
ridiculous" for China to say that Chinese explorer Guo Shoujing
built a celestial observatory in 1279 on Nanhai island Scarborough
shoal, which in any case was barely just above water. He says China
cannot claim the South China Sea in much the same way that India
cannot claim the Indian Ocean, or Mexico the Gulf of Mexico.
The
real question is whether China would heed or bother to any evidence
at all as it appears to be in a belligerent mood so far refusing even
to consider what other nations have to say. Meanwhile the war of maps
goes on.
15th
September 2014
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