Defence Q&A South China Sea Dispute: What exactly is the extent of dispute? Which side is legally right in the South China Sea ?

[Cabatli_TR]

The disputes that we have been reading frequently lately and that many regional states and China have experienced over the sharing of sea areas in the South China Sea have now become the agenda of the world. In fact, it started to turn into an area where NATO and the West focused their attention and openly took the front and started to show power with deploying warships. We see that new strong alliances and even disagreements are formed on the basis of this problem within NATO.

On the other hand, we are talking about a China that, despite having signed the UNCLOS agreement, allegedly does not fulfill the requirements of this agreement, invests in the navy in a dizzying way and frightens the countries in the region. The mentioned Chinese government is also trying to establish a legal basis for their sea area claims by building artificial islands in a short time, but this attitude ignites the problem even more and pushes the countries of the region to a defensive position in search of alliances, causing the start of a great armament acquisition attack. I would like the scope of this question, which I consider to be the most important issue of the cold war with China, and the views of the countries in the region to be discussed in this QA topic.

Natural resources in the disputed sea

 

[Ravenman]

I saw one picture of a artificial island that China build, somewhere in front of Indonesia or Malaysia i dont remember. That fake island was so little, so small, that there was only room for 2 Chinese soldiers to stand on it. There wasnt even space for a toilet, let alone a base. Only 2 soldiers could stand on it, and they did. They hold watch on that 'island' and they were fed with food and drinks by tresspassing little Chinese ships one or twice at day.

And believe or not, they gave this little tiny island a very great EEZ holding thousands of miles. They call it a 'island', but its just a artificial rock.

And what does Turkey do? Turkey has a lot of tiny islands, real islands, in the Aegean and the East Med. Not artificial but real ones. But no country or agreement acknowledges that these are islands, let alone that they recognize the EEZ of them.

Turkey should have act like in their seas like China does in theirs. But they dont. China is smart. Turkey is stupid.

 

[xizhimen]

I saw one picture of a artificial island that China build, somewhere in front of Indonesia or Malaysia i dont remember. That fake island was so little, so small, that there was only room for 2 Chinese soldiers to stand on it. There wasnt even space for a toilet, let alone a base. Only 2 soldiers could stand on it, and they did. They hold watch on that 'island' and they were fed with food and drinks by tresspassing little Chinese ships one or twice at day.

I guarantee you saw it around 40 years ago, the time when the city of Shenzhen was no more than a sleepy fishing village.

 

[xizhimen]

China controls 4 islands ( Reefs) in this region. all other claimants control more than China.

 

[ardezzo]

I saw one picture of a artificial island that China build, somewhere in front of Indonesia or Malaysia i dont remember. That fake island was so little, so small, that there was only room for 2 Chinese soldiers to stand on it. There wasnt even space for a toilet, let alone a base. Only 2 soldiers could stand on it, and they did. They hold watch on that 'island' and they were fed with food and drinks by tresspassing little Chinese ships one or twice at day.

And believe or not, they gave this little tiny island a very great EEZ holding thousands of miles. They call it a 'island', but its just a artificial rock.

And what does Turkey do? Turkey has a lot of tiny islands, real islands, in the Aegean and the East Med. Not artificial but real ones. But no country or agreement acknowledges that these are islands, let alone that they recognize the EEZ of them.

Turkey should have act like in their seas like China does in theirs. But they dont. China is smart. Turkey is stupid.

fake island doesn't count in UNCLOS, it doesn't make your EEZ larger.

 

[xizhimen]

fake island doesn't count in UNCLOS, it doesn't make your EEZ larger.

I m not sure that China claims EEZ based on those reefs, but China's claim never has never changed from day one, PRC actually inherited this claim from ROC, PRC didn't create this claim. ROC (Taiwan) has exactly the same claim as PRC and occupies the biggest island, which is also the only island having fresh water, in this region. Taiping island.

 

[xizhimen]

I saw one picture of a artificial island that China build, somewhere in front of Indonesia or Malaysia i dont remember. That fake island was so little, so small, that there was only room for 2 Chinese soldiers to stand on it. There wasnt even space for a toilet, let alone a base. Only 2 soldiers could stand on it, and they did. They hold watch on that 'island' and they were fed with food and drinks by tresspassing little Chinese ships one or twice at day.

Mischief Reef in the South China Sea in the 1980's and 1990's

Mischief Reef in 2016

 

[xizhimen]

Mischief Reef near future plan

 

[xizhimen]

China only controls 4 reefs in Spratly Islands, all have modern large airports now, capable for taking off and landing for jumbo aircrafts like Airbus 320 and Boeing 737

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new.qq.com

 

[Gary]

No country recognize the 9 dash line.

End of story

 

[xizhimen]

No country recognize the 9 dash line.

End of story

No one is going to accept each other's claims, so status quo is the best for now. Every keeps what they've already had.