Spratly Islands

Plural	yes
Name	Spratly Islands
Image name	South China Sea.jpg
Location	South China Sea
Coordinates	(Spratly Island)
Total islands	over 750
Major islands	Itu Aba IslandNamyit IslandNortheast CaySin Cowe IslandSouthwest CaySpratly IslandSwallow ReefThitu IslandWest York Island
Area	less than
Coastline
Highest mount	unnamed location on Southwest Cay
Elevation
Country claim	Brunei
Country claim divisions title	EEZ
Country claim divisions	Louisa Reef
Country 2 claim	Malaysia
Country 2 claim divisions title	State
Country 2 claim divisions	Sabah
Country 3 claim	Philippines
Country 3 claim divisions title	Municipality
Country 3 claim divisions	Kalayaan, Palawan
Country 4 claim	People's Republic of China
Country 4 claim divisions title	County
Country 4 claim divisions	Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority, Hainan
Country 5 claim	Republic of China (Taiwan)
Country 5 claim divisions title	Municipality
Country 5 claim divisions	Kaohsiung
Country 6 claim	Vietnam
Country 6 claim divisions title	Province
Country 6 claim divisions	Khanh Hoa
Country	none
Population	No indigenous population

The Spratly Islands are a group of more than 750 reefs,

* Malaysia: Part of the state of Sabah;

* Philippines: Part of Palawan province;

* People's Republic of China: Part of the Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority, Hainan province;

* Republic of China: Part of Kaohsiung municipality

Climate: tropical

Terrain: flat

Elevation extremes:

*lowest point: South China Sea (0 m)

*highest point: unnamed location on Southwest Cay (4 m)

Natural hazards: serious maritime hazards because of numerous banks, reefs and shoals

The islands are most likely volcanic in origin. The islands themselves contain almost no significant arable land and have no indigenous inhabitants, although twenty of the islands, including Itu Aba, the largest, are considered to be able to sustain human life. Natural resources include fish, guano, undetermined oil and natural gas potential. Economic activity includes commercial fishing, shipping, and tourism. The proximity to nearby oil- and gas-producing sedimentary basins suggests the potential for oil and gas deposits, but the region is largely unexplored, and there are no reliable estimates of potential reserves. Commercial exploitation of hydrocarbons has yet to be developed. The Spratly Islands have at least three fishing ports, several docks and harbors, at least three heliports, at least four territorial rigging style outposts (especially due west of Namyit), and six to eight airstrips. These islands are strategically located near several primary shipping lanes.

Ecology

Coral reefs

Coral reefs are the predominant structure of these islands; the Spratly group contains over 600 coral reefs in total.

Vegetation

Little vegetation grows on these islands, which are subject to intense monsoons.

Ancient Chinese maps record the "Thousand Li Stretch of Sands"; Qianli Changsha (千里長沙) and the "Ten-Thousand Li of Stone Pools"; Wanli Shitang (萬里石塘), which China today claims refers to the Spratly Islands. The Wanli Shitang have been explored by the Chinese since the Yuan Dynasty and may have been considered by them to have been within their national boundaries. They are also referenced in the 13th century, followed by the Ming Dynasty. When the Ming Dynasty collapsed, the Qing Dynasty continued to include the territory in maps compiled in 1724, 1755, 1767, 1810, and 1817. A Vietnamese map from 1834 also includes the Spratly Islands clumped in with the Paracels (a common occurrence on maps of that time) labeled as "Wanli Changsha".

According to Hanoi, old Vietnamese maps record Bãi Cát Vàng (Golden Sandbanks, referring to both Paracels and the Spratly Islands) which lay near the Coast of the central Vietnam as early as 1838.

The islands were sporadically visited throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by mariners from different European powers (including Richard Spratly, after whom the island group derives its most recognizable English name). However, these nations showed little interest in the islands. In 1883, German boats surveyed the Spratly and Paracel Islands but withdrew the survey eventually after receiving protests from the Nguyen Dynasty. Many European maps before the 20th century do not even make mention of this region.

Military conflict

In 1933, France asserted its claims from 1887 to the Spratly and Paracel Islands on behalf of its then-colony Vietnam. It occupied a number of the Spratly Islands, including Itu Aba, built weather stations on two, and administered them as part of French Indochina. This occupation was protested by the Republic of China government because France admitted finding Chinese fishermen there when French warships visited the nine islands. In 1935, the ROC government also announced a sovereignty claim on the Spratly Islands. Japan occupied some of the islands in 1939 during World War II, and used the islands as a submarine base for the occupation of Southeast Asia. During the occupation, these islands were called Shinnan Shoto (新南諸島), literally the New Southern Islands, and put under the governance of Taiwan together with the Paracel Islands (西沙群岛). In 1945, The Republic of China sent its Naval ships to take control of the islands after the surrender of Japan. It had chosen the largest and perhaps the only inhabitable island, Itu Aba Island, as its base, and renamed the island under the name of the naval vessel as Taiping. The KMT force of Republic Of China briefly abandoned the islands after its defeat in China's civil war in 1949, but re-established the base in 1956. Today, Itu Aba Island, is still administrated by the Republic of China,

Following the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II, China re-claimed the entirety of the Spratly Islands (including Itu Aba), accepting the Japanese surrender on the islands based on the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations. The ROC government withdrew from most of the Spratly and Paracel Islands after they retreated to Taiwan from the opposing Communist Party of China, which founded the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Japan renounced all claims to the islands in the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, together with the Paracels, Pratas & other islands captured from China, upon which China reasserted its claim to the islands.

It was unclear whether France continued its claim to the islands after WWII, since none of the islands other than Itu Aba is habitable. The South Vietnamese government took over the Trường Sa administration after the defeat of the French at the end of the First Indochina War. In 1958, the People's Republic of China issued a declaration defining its territorial waters, which encompassed the Spratly Islands. North Vietnam's prime minister, Pham Van Dong, sent a formal note to Zhou Enlai, stating that the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam respects the decision by China regarding the 12 nautical mile limit of territorial waters. In 2004, Vietnam issued a white paper saying, in part, }}

On May 23, 2011, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III warned the Chinese defense minister of a possible arms race in the region if tensions worsened over disputes in the South China Sea.

Aquino said he told visiting Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie in their meeting that such an arms race could result if there were more encounters in the disputed and potentially oil-rich Spratly islands.

“When we have these incidents, does it not promote an arms race happening within the region? And when there is an arms race, does not the potential for conflict increase?” he recalled telling Liang.

Aquino was quoted as saying: “We may not have the capabilities now, but that might force us to increase our capabilities also".

In May 2011, Chinese naval vessels opened fire on Vietnamese fishing vessels operating off East London Reef (Da Dong Island). Three military vessels were numbered 989, 27 and 28. They showed up with a small group of Chinese fishing vessels. Another Vietnamese fishing vessel was fired on near Cross (Chu Thap) Island. The Chief Commander of Border Guards in Phu Yen Province, Vietnam reports that a total of four Vietnamese vessels were fired upon by Chinese naval vessels.

Telecommunications

In 2005, a cellular phone base station was erected by the Philippines' Smart Communications on Pag-asa Island.

On 18 May 2011, China Mobile announced that its mobile phone coverage has expanded to the Spratly Islands, under the rationale that it can allow soldiers stationed on the islands, fishermen and merchant vessels within the area to use mobile services, and can also provide assistance during storms and sea rescues. The deployment of China Mobile's support over the islands took roughly one year to fulfil.

See also

Kingdom of Humanity

South China Sea Islands

Paracel Islands

Junk Keying

Policies, activities and history of the Philippines in Spratly Islands

Kalayaan, Palawan, Philippines

Zheng He

Crysis, a computer game set on the Spratly Islands.

SSN, a computer game set during a conflict over the Spratly Islands.

List of islands in the South China Sea

References

Further reading

Daniel J.Dzurek and Clive H.Schofield. The Spratly Islands dispute: who's on first?. IBRU; 1996. ISBN 9781897643235

C.Michael Hogan (2011) South China Sea Topic ed. P.Saundry. Ed.-in-chief C.J.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC

Mike Spick. Dangerous Ground!, Air Forces Monthly, December 1993

External links

Mariner's page of the Spratly Islands

Taiwanese List with ~170 entries

List of atolls with areas

Satellite images of all islands and reefs of the Spratly Islands.

Flags of the World (FOTW) entry with various micronations on the Spratly Islands.

Map showing the claims

A tabular summary about the Spratly and Paracel Islands

Another overview table of the Spratly Islands

CIA World Factbook for Spratly Islands

, from Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Third Party Summary of the Dispute

Google Map of Spratly Islands

A collection of documents on Spratly and Paracel Islands by Nguyen Thai Hoc Foundation

Category:Disputed islands Category:Disputed territories in Asia Category:Territorial disputes of the People's Republic of China Category:Territorial disputes of Malaysia Category:Territorial disputes of the Philippines Category:Territorial disputes of Vietnam Category:Territorial disputes of the Republic of China Category:Districts of Khanh Hoa Province