Spratlys issue

The Issue

The Philippines made their first claim in the area--which they
refer to as the Kalayaan islands--in 1975 and has been developing
oil in the region between the Spratlys and the island of Palawan
since 1976. The Philippines real history in the region began in May
1956 when a private Philippine expedition surveyed and occupied
some of the islands. The Philippines were a trusteeship of the
Allied powers at the time and the guarantee of Allied protection
kept the Philippines from garrisoning troops on its islands.
However, as that guarantee weakened the Philippines decided to beef
up its defense. In 1976, it set up a garrison on Palawan and in
1978 it established more soldiers on seven of the islands. There
are currently about 1,000 Marines stationed on the islands. In
1979, the Philippines stated that it only wanted control of the
seven islands under its control and administration and not the rest
of the archipelago.


China's claims to the island are based on the same history as
Taiwan's claim. The PRC government maintains that it is the
legitimate Chinese government and that, therefore, the
islands--which they call the Nansha islands--are their territory.
They have been the most belligerent in pursuing their claim. The
dispute between China and Vietnam picked up in 1988. Chinese naval
vessels sailed into the Spratlys in January 1988 and Chinese
marines started building defenses on one of the largest
islands--the first time China has settled soldiers on the islands.
In March, fighting broke out between Vietnam and China and China
sunk two Vietnamese ships. While they have moved to more political
means of dealing with the dispute, tensions remain high in the
area. Confrontation surfaced again when China contracted with a US
firm to begin testing for oil sights, even though the territorial
issue remains far from solved. Occassional harassment of fishermen
by all sides continues as well. Each of the six countries maintain
its claim to all the islands. The protagonists have been discussing
the possibility of shelving the sovereignty issue to undertake
joint development of its resources and have sent a joint scientific
team to run tests on resource potential.