[kyleball]

What does everyone think about the South China Sea Dispute?

(From this article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18897855)

I find it difficult to know how a country can claim that much water to the point of cutting off the border. How can they even try? I'm sure people will have more information that I do, so it would be great to hear different opinions!

[Aurorae]

The argument that China is using is that they discovered the South China Island sea islands first (based on historical maps dating back to the 1300s as well as theoretical migration patterns), and hence have the right to sovereignty. Theoretically, this means that China actually has the strongest case given that historical items such as ships, Chinese pottery etc. have been found that date back to the 15th Century and possibly beyond, before claims were established by Phillipines, Vietnam etc.

However, the South China Sea islands fall close to what is known as the the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Phillipines, Brunai and Malaysia, which under the 1982 'Law of the Sea', grants them exclusive rights to sovereignty of the islands. The problem with this argument is that the islands would have to be 'Res Nullius' (or owner-free) for such a thing to be enacted, and therefore you would have to consider the islands to be owner-free before 1982 for that to be recognised.

Having considered all of this, it seems that the South China Sea dispute relies on whether sovereignty has been established before the 1930s (the point at which the dispute started to heat up), something which grants China, Taiwan and Vietnam the most entitlement to the South China Sea Islands.

[cl_steele]

I think its academic, eventually the Chinese will invariably get their way or at least the most favourable deal from it. They can throw their weight around far more than the others and no one will do anything to stop them...