Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Spratly Islands--International status; Spratly Islands; International law; Jurisdiction, Territorial;
Abstract
Since 1970, the claims in the South China Sea have become a matter of considerable political attention, both regionally and internationally. This increased attention has came about largely because of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea and the fact that China has started pressing for what it calls its historical claims. The PRC and the ROC, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines have claims to islands and waters in the SCS. The claims are promoted today because of the major oil potential of the Sea. The UN CLOS allows control of resources by the State that has sovereignty over an oceanic area. Under the 1982 UNCLOS treaty, a State may claim the sea if it controls an inhabitable island or one capable of sustaining economic life. All the SCS claimants, except Brunei, are trying to establish human occupation to comply with that section of the treaty. The South China Sea extends over 640, 000 square miles, but contains less than 10 square miles of land, that is above water during high tide. The littoral states want the natural resources. Non-littoral states, including the US, Japan, and India, though, have a different interest in the Sea. The SCS has relatively restricted navigable sea-lanes; yet along these sea-lanes pass 60% of the world's fuel products and about 50% by value of all shipping. Control of these sea-lanes by any hegemonic State, that deny them to other States' ships, could harm the economies of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, greatly, and affect other States' economies, including the US. Most of the claimant States are working to improve their air and naval forces to defend their claim. The PRC and the ROC make the most extensive claim, stating that 90 percent of the Sea belongs to China, as well as all the islands in the Spratlys. Being the largest claimant in area, population, and militarily, the PRC will be the State that decides if the dispute is to be settled peacefully or by conflict. The dispute to is, indeed, of great geopolitical importance to East Asia, the US, and the world.
Year of Submission
2001
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Geography
First Advisor
Thomas Fogerty
Second Advisor
C. Murray Austin
Third Advisor
Taifa Yu
Date Original
2001
Object Description
1 PDF file (181 leaves)
Copyright
©2001 William Jeffery Brown
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Brown, William Jeffery, "A Political Geography of Chinese and Other State Claims to Territorial Sovereignty of the Spratly Islands" (2001). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2199.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2199
Comments
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