Taiwan is one of seven nations laying claims of one kind or another to islands in the South China Sea. “Islands” is hardly the correct term — they are in reality sand-banks, atolls, shallows and coral reefs, but they have many natural resources and lay astride major shipping lanes. China has claimed that they all lie within its territorial waters.
These islets are in two groups, the Paracels (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) to the north and the Spratlys (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) to the south. Taiwan’s interest is largely in the Paracels, as is that of the Philippines, with Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia focusing on the southern region.
MARINE DEGRADATION
But this book isn’t primarily political in its focus. Rather, it’s concerned with marine degradation in the whole region as observed by the author from his experiences on a Vietnamese fishing boat, or “cruising yawl” to use a phrase mariners of Joseph Conrad’s generation would have been familiar with.
This important book appears just as 100 nations agreed at the Brest Summit to take action to curb illegal fishing and the plastic pollution of the world’s oceans.
Shao Kwang-Tsao (邵廣昭), a retired researcher at Academia Sinica’s Biodiversity Research Center, has studied the “coral cathedrals” beneath the Spratleys, prompting former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to propose a “Spratley Initiative,” which would have recognized the entire area as an environmental protection zone.
James Borton’s approach is at times colloquial as well as being invariably well-informed, leading him to declare in a Hanoi bar that his researches had led him to an excessive thirst.
The South China Sea is 1.4 million square miles in area and, according to the author, contains a greater range of marine bio-diversity than almost any comparable ocean on the planet.
As for China, it’s estimated that its annual fish catch is 20 percent of the world’s total, and is responsible for a third of the world’s plastic pollution. Relations between Vietnam and China go back 2,000 years, so the current conflict over the South China Sea’s islands is in a way paradoxical. Xi Jinping (習近平) has referred to Sino-Vietnamese relations as a “special friendship between comrades and brothers.”
Over 300 million people live on the South China Sea’s periphery and are used to enjoying its resources. China’s so-called “nine dash line” marks its claim to sovereignty over almost all this contested area, but fish catches are dwindling for everyone — according to some estimates by 70 percent over the past 20 years.
Almost 55 percent of the world’s fishing vessels, many of them small, operate in the South China Sea. Song Yann-huei (宋燕輝), a research fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica, believes in a shared and sustainable future for the islands, embracing China’s much-vaunted concept of an “ecological civilization.” Even so, few deny China’s current “hard-power maritime expansionism” with its ramming of foreign fishing boats, harassing of oil exploration surveys and building of military outposts on reclaimed land.
“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” declared former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. But the islands’ oil and gas reserves make them highly desirable conquests. Similar conflicts are imminent, incidentally, in the Arctic region.
Meanwhile, few would have predicted the victory of the Philippines in the unanimous arbitration of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague over the South China Sea’s Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in 2016.
Dispatches from the South China Sea is a very thoroughly researched book, with many more areas of expertise than it’s possible to indicate here, stretching from whales and dolphins to tuna and coral reefs. Some 160 square kilometers of reefs have been destroyed through base-building and clam hunting and these reefs, some of the most spectacular in the world, can never now be replaced.
Furthermore, Borton writes that many species of reef fish are non-migratory, and the destruction of their reef habitats often spells their extinction.
TAIWAN ANGLE
The Hague arbitration specifically designated Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), administrated by Taiwan, as a “rock” and hence not available for consideration as part of China’s continental shelf. Last year, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) proposed the establishment of an international scientific research station on the site. Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) earlier called on its other claimant nations to combine and share resources there. Rising sea levels nevertheless threaten the site’s very existence. Nevertheless, Taiwan’s approach gets high praise throughout this book.
Taiwan, Borton argues, is a highly responsible player in the South China Sea game. He comes to the surprising conclusion that “Taiwan’s complex cross-strait relationship with Mainland China under-scores that sovereignty and security form the core of their relationship. Despite missed opportunities, missteps and suspicions of bad faith, there is a peaceful coexistence marked by negotiation and rapprochement.”
In an Appendix Borton describes a visit to the Cham Islands, close to the coast of Vietnam. They pose, he says, an enviable example of the potential of all these South China Sea islands to become tourist attractions, and hence centers for international cooperation and marine research. He concludes the book by stating that even half a degree of ocean warming will spell disaster for many already threatened coral systems.
A sunlit seascape, a profusion of marine life, surrounding countries devoted to its resources — this is a grand and poetic vision. That it is marred by political rivalry is one of the tragedies of the age.
If one asks Taiwanese why house prices are so high or why the nation is so built up or why certain policies cannot be carried out, one common answer is that “Taiwan is too small.” This is actually true, though not in the way people think. The National Property Administration (NPA), responsible for tracking and managing the government’s real estate assets, maintains statistics on how much land the government owns. As of the end of last year, land for official use constituted 293,655 hectares, for public use 1,732,513 hectares, for non-public use 216,972 hectares and for state enterprises 34 hectares, yielding
The small platform at Duoliang Train Station in Taitung County’s Taimali Township (太麻里) served villagers from 1992 to 2006, but was eventually shut down due to lack of use. Just 10 years later, the abandoned train station had become widely known as the most beautiful station in Taiwan, and visitors were so frequent that the village had to start restricting traffic. Nowadays, Duoliang Village (多良) is known as a bit of a tourist trap, with a mandatory, albeit modest, admission fee of NT$10 giving access to a crowded lane of vendors with a mediocre view of the ocean and the trains
Traditionally, indigenous people in Taiwan’s mountains practice swidden cultivation, or “slash and burn” agriculture, a practice common in human history. According to a 2016 research article in the International Journal of Environmental Sustainability, among the Atayal people, this began with a search for suitable forested slopeland. The trees are burnt for fertilizer and the land cleared of stones. The stones and wood are then piled up to make fences, while both dead and standing trees are retained on the plot. The fences are used to grow climbing crops like squash and beans. The plot itself supports farming for three years.
For many people, Bilingual Nation 2030 begins and ends in the classroom. Since the policy was launched in 2018, the debate has centered on students, teachers and the pressure placed on schools. Yet the policy was never solely about English education. The government’s official plan also calls for bilingualization in Taiwan’s government services, laws and regulations, and living environment. The goal is to make Taiwan more inclusive and accessible to international enterprises and talent and better prepared for global economic and trade conditions. After eight years, that grand vision is due for a pulse check. RULES THAT CAN BE READ For Harper Chen (陳虹宇), an adviser
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