A new pier and a lighthouse were opened on Dec. 12 on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the South China Sea. During the opening ceremony, a memorial tablet that bore a message from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was unveiled. The text on the tablet, read: “Peace in the South China Sea and our national territory secure forever,” highlighting the president’s determination to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and protect the nation’s southern borders.
It is also evidence of how Taiwan, a weaker party in the long-running dispute over sovereignty in the South China Sea, is trying to stake out a role for itself as peacemaker.
However, Ma did not attend the ceremony as originally planned, citing US pressure. It was the wrong decision at the wrong time.
This was a disappointment to Ma and it also showed how powerless the nation is to affect change in the South China Sea.
Just after the end of World War II, the Republic of China (ROC) had a distinct advantage in the South China Sea. At the time, Japan had evacuated the Shinnan Gunto (New South Islands) and their control was transfered the ROC.
The following year, the Ministry of the Interior published a South Sea Islands map, which still affects the situation in the region. It marks the Pratas Islands (東沙群島), the Paracel Islands (西沙群島), the Macclesfield Bank (中沙群島) and the Spratly Islands, and draws a border line called the “11-dash line” along the median between the reefs in the outermost perimeter of the four island groups and neighboring nations. The map forms the basis for Chinese and Taiwanese governments’ claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea.
In 1949, there was a change of government in China and after the defeated Nationalist army evacuated Hainan Island in 1950, it was decided that supply lines to Woody Island (Yongxing Island, 永興島) were too long, and in May that year, the soldiers stationed there were evacuated to Taiwan.
After that, Itu Aba Island was occupied by the Philippines, but in 1956, Taiwan regained control after stationing marines there.
Faced with Beijing’s threats to “liberate” Taiwan through military force, the ROC, while lacking sufficient power to expand its control to other islands, continued to maintain jurisdiction over the isolated island 1,600km from Taiwan proper.
Apart from the Itu Aba command, Taiwan maintains jurisdiction over the Pratas Islands and over Jhongjhou Reef (中洲礁) 6km from Itu Aba.
After the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, other claimant nations have occupied islands and resource-rich regions in the South China Sea. Beginning in the 1990s, the dispute over the sea intensified and as China’s willingness to protect its claims in the region have grown stronger, the conflict has developed into a conflict between Beijing on the one hand and Southeast Asian nations on the other.
This year, the situation in the region entered a new phase as the US became a part in the dispute.
From a great power perspective, it is not difficult to see that Taiwan, which is squeezed between the US and China, finds itself in a difficult situation in the new South China Sea.
As for historical sovereignty that Beijing recognizes the then-ROC government’s actions after the end of World War II, although Beijing blocks Taiwan from engaging in dialogue with Southeast Asian nations over the South China Sea issue.
In 2002, China and ASEAN sidelined Taiwan as they signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
As long as China continues to threaten to invade Taiwan, there is no doubt that the US would be Taiwan’s biggest supporter in terms of security and defense. As matters of security concern many issues that different parties find sensitive, Taiwan is forced to rely on the US whenever an issue, directly or indirectly, threatens its security, and the South China Sea issue is no exception.
Given this situation, Ma’s failure to visit Itu Aba does not come as a surprise.
Despite being squeezed between the US and China, Taiwan has a role to play.
Navigating between the two powers and using its crucial position to negotiate with them to gain the greatest benefit is a wisdom that any small nation must possess.
The difference in the situation in the East China Sea and the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) is that Taiwan has had jurisdiction over three islands in the South China Sea for more than 50 years.
This time period legitimizes Taiwan’s control over the islands. The long-standing control over Itu Aba, the Pratas and Jhongjhou Reef gives Taipei a bargaining chip in its relations with the US and China.
As the US and China wrestle over the South China Sea and as the dispute between Beijing and the other four claimant nations in the region continues, Taiwan is quietly promoting a peaceful, environmentally friendly low-carbon policy on Itu Aba and the plan over the next several years is to turn the island into a base for humanitarian aid and disaster prevention to help fishermen and seamen that encounter difficulties in the region.
Perhaps this strategy by the supposedly “weak” Taiwan is an example of the wisdom of a small nation under pressure from great powers.
John Lim is an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Modern History.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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