Geographer: China’s Claim to South China Sea Not Rooted in History

Dien Nguyen nguyendien519 at gmail.com

Sun Sep 25 16:58:11 PDT 2016

List members may find this account of Bill Hayton's talk at the CSIS of

interest,

Nguyễn Điền

Independent

Canberra

Geographer: China’s Claim to South China Sea Not Rooted in History

A British geographer and journalist described China’s claims to large

swaths of seas and land formations off its coast are based on 20th-century

events — from the Boxer Rebellion to the defeat of Japan in World War II —

and not deeply rooted in its history.

This assertion brought several heated questions from the audience.

Bill Hayton, an associate fellow at London’s Chatham House and the author

of *South China Sea, The Struggle for Power in Asia

<https://www.amazon.com/South-China-Sea-Struggle-Power/dp/0300186835>, *said

in response to a question that Beijing’s claims are valid “because [these

territories] are ours” historically, said “a hundred years ago you [Chinese

citizens] wouldn’t feel” the same way. For much of China’s past, most of

the South China Sea was viewed as “a place where pirates roam.”

https://news.usni.org/2016/09/23/geographer-chinas-claim-south-china-sea-not-rooted-history-british-geographer-journalist-described-chinas-claims-large-swaths-seas-land-formations-off-co

Bill Hayton bill.hayton at bbc.co.uk

Sun Sep 25 19:00:21 PDT 2016

thanks - although it's a bit of a clunky summary of my narrative. The fuller version is online here...

https://www.csis.org/events/modern-origins-chinas-south-china-sea-claim

Cheers

Bill

David G. Sox chesahbinu at comcast.net

Mon Sep 26 14:09:06 PDT 2016

Thanks, Bill. I have watching your talk now. You and I have exchanged private emails about this subject, always supporting each other's positions. My view, as a Champa researcher, has been that the ocean body now called the South China Sea was in fact for thousands of years an ocean body primarily navigated by various Austronesian- (Malayo-Polynesian-) speaking peoples. Their greater Southeast Asian ocean-centered culture area is what is now called Nusantara, a term coined by Wilhelm Solheim, former Professor of Anthropology (and Archaeology) and the University of Hawaii at Manoa--and my mentor and friend. In my own sometimes biased view, I told you that Champa people very well might have conceived this ocean as the Champa Sea instead of the "South China Sea," and other Austronesian speaking people could have conceived it in their own ethnocentric ways. Or perhaps they had no name for it.

I have no idea whether any of these ancient Southeast Asian polities ever claimed territorial rights over this ocean body but I rather doubt it, considering the lengthy time it took sailing ships to traverse the "South China Sea." The only previous period in history that China claimed this oceanic territory was during the early Ming Dynasty under Emperor Yongle when he sent Admiral ZhengHe and his fleet of giant sailing ship into Island Southeast Asia, India and as far as the African continent. But that was short-lived period.

>From the viewpoint of Champa studies, I find it most interesting that there is virtually no mention of maritime pursuits in native Chamic or Sanskrit writings despite descriptions of the Cham as avid sailors, traders and pirates.

David Griffiths Sox

Independent Champa Researcher

Fairfield, CA, USA

Michael Karadjis mkaradjis at gmail.com

Mon Sep 26 23:12:27 PDT 2016

Hi David, are you able to provide any links to articles you’ve written with this fascinating angle?

Michael Karadjis

Independent Researcher