Island tourism may be a ploy for oil

In a move thick with political undertones, the Kaohsiung City Government's plans to open the Pratas Islands (東沙島) to tourism.

The proposed project was certainly helped by a recent decision to remove troops stationed on the islands and replace them with a civilian force.

Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), announced earlier this year that the Pratas Islands, consisting of a small atoll in the South China Sea, is to be developed into an ecological preservation area and tourist development zone. Flights and boats to the islands, also known as the Pratas Archipelago, are due to begin next year.

Then, last week, defense minister Tang Fei (唐飛) announced that the new Coast Guard Administration, to be established next year, would be sent to replace troops currently stationed on Pratas and other smaller offshore islands.

Naval officials have also mentioned possible tourist developments on the islands.

The Pratas Islands are situated 430km southwest of the southernmost tip of Taiwan. The biggest island is 8km across, and possesses a sizable runway slightly longer than the landing strip on Kinmen Island, Taiwan's heavily fortified island in the Taiwan Strait.

The area is virtually untouched, with white sand and coral reefs teeming with tropical fish.

The plan, say city officials, is to develop the islands into a center for scuba diving, fishing and other water sports.

Fang Lee-hsing (方力行), a marine resources professor at Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung,said the area is perfectly suited to become an ecological protection zone. The small garrison of soldiers stationed on the islands have been the only human visitors in recent years, which has helped preserve the natural beauty of the atoll.

"The coral reefs are quite spectacular," says Fang, "and on a par with those of (Australia's) Great Barrier Reef."

The downside to these attractions is the lack of basic infrastructure on the islands. There is no fresh water, no electricity, and more significantly, nowhere to stay, at least for the time being. However, officials said that to preserve the environment, development will be kept to a minimum, as will the number of visitors permitted to travel to the islands.

Visitors will either fly in and out the same day, or sleep on a cruise ship offshore. The journey by boat takes about 12 hours from Kaohsiung, so cruises to the Pratas Islands would be promoted as three-day packages.

For some, however, the real issue, lying quite literally under the surface, is oil. There are potentially huge deposits of petroleum and natural gas in the South China Sea near the Pratas Islands, the Paracel Islands, Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands. These islands and reefs, though, are claimed either in part or in whole by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei. Beneath the sea bed are also possible gold reserves, the exploration of which has been put off by extreme water depths in some places, but mainly by complex territorial disputes between the countries with competing claims over the islands.

With so many nations vying to lay claim over the tiny islands, Taiwan hopes that by using tourism in the area, it can gain a foothold without igniting controversial debate over prospecting for oil.

Liu Tai-ying (劉太英), the head of the KMT's Business Management Committee, has said that the plan is to use tourism as a first step toward negotiations with Beijing, Tokyo and Washington to jointly explore and exploit resources in the South China Sea.