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The Spratly Islands

© John Walsh

The Spratly Islands are a group of more than 100 reefs, islets and islands occupying in total less than five square kilometres and spread over more than 400,000 square kilometres of sea. The sea in question is the South China Sea and the location is between the Philippines and Vietnam. The Spratlys are part of the great sweep of archipelago Southeast Asia which totals more than 30,000 and which so complicates geography, governance and economics in the region. As these are so small and remote, there would not be much interest in the area - however, the islands are more important as territorial markers than as places of habitation. There are no native islanders but there are rich fishing grounds and it is more than possible that significant oil and gas reserves too will be present.

As a result, a number of different nations have sought to claim some or all of the islands. Taiwan, Vietnam and China each claim the islands in their entirety. Malaysia and the Philippines claim some but not all of the islands, as also does Brunei. To support their claims, states have placed troops on some of the islands that they have claimed. Some 1500 Vietnamese troops, for example, spend their time gazing at the sea from some of their outposts; perhaps 450 Chinese troops follow suit from their claims, smaller numbers of Philippine and Malaysian armed forces personnel do the same from their bases. It is fortunate that the islands are so widely spaced as otherwise some might start taking potshots at each other to relieve the boredom.

The potential for conflict is very evident here. China and Taiwan, for example, already maintain uncompromising poses towards each other regarding China's claim that Taiwan is a renegade province that must be reunited to the polity of the mainland, by force if necessary. China and Vietnam, meanwhile, fought a war against each other at the end of the 1970s over Vietnam's intentions in the invasion of Cambodia (see: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1817... There has been a general concern that China is pursuing an expansionist policy in East Asia to go with its burgeoning economy and that the need for additional energy sources to feed its economy will lead it into reckless action. The plans announced by Vietnam to launch a regular air service to the islands could be seen as exacerbating that tension.

However, in 2002, closer co-operation between China and ASEAN generally was responsible for helping the negotiations for a treaty on the islands which has served to defuse some of the initial concern. Co-operation between Asian nations has improved greatly over the last few years, despite the failings of headline multilateral agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which have been highjacked by the self-seeking motives of western countries. Japanese influence has been helpful in this process and the Japanese state has been gaining in confidence in its role of a leader in East Asia.