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The Traipsing Wanderer
No! The Philippines does NOT belong to China.
This is in response to that Chinese anchorwoman, He Jia, who ignorantly stated, and I quote, “We all know that the Philippines is China’s inherent territory and the Philippines belongs to Chinese sovereignty, this is an indisputable fact.”
Main article: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-standoff-philippines-heats-travel-warnings-oil-drilling-141813971.html
As a Filipino, being educated in a school in the Philippines, a part of our curriculum was to understand the Philippine history. It was, of course, written by Filipino authors and, will of course be on a Filipino’s point of view. Nonetheless, what we have learned within those 4 corners are facts. However, though fact is a noun defined as something that actually exists or happened, they can go obsolete over time, as every single day, researchers get on with new information and discoveries that makes these facts obsolete, consequently causing these facts to be of no use.
The archipelago of the Philippines was discovered by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. This sparked the Spanish interest. Before the Spanish came, merchants, the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, etc., had been coming in and out of the Philippine seas to trade goods which gave way to the introduction of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam to the nation. Years later, 1543 (others say it’s 1542) to be exact, another Spanish explorer, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos came and named the archipelago as Las Islas Filipinas to honour King Philip II of Spain. 1565 was when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived and declared rule over the islands of the Philippines. This remained for more than 300 years, thus explaining why Christianity was widely adopted as the nation’s religion, and the vast similarities between the culture and language of both Spain and the Philippines. Between the 19th and the 20th century, revolutions and wars went on and on. The aftermath resulted to the United States of America as a dominant power, explaining why most Filipinos has this affinity to the Western culture and speaks English fluently. Then, the Japanese came and took over, until the end of the World War II when the Philippines finally gained independence over its numerous islands.
The Philippines is a democratic nation with a presidential system that governs the archipelago, with exception to the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, which is free from the national government. It is a member of the United Nations and has good relations with its fellow ASEAN countries, the US, and Europe. It did have its share of disputes years ago, when it was at war with Vietnam during the 1970s, the disagreements with Malaysia regarding Sabah, and the on-going disputes regarding Spratly’s.
To sum it up, if you have read the above stated facts, you will know that the Chinese did come to the Philippines earlier than the Spanish but only for trade. They have never declared power or rule over the archipelago. Geographically speaking though, the 7,107 islands of the Philippines lies along the South China Sea, other than that, the archipelago has no historical ‘connections’ or whatsoever to China, which puts the anchorwoman’s statement to a deceptive, misleading, or false notion.
So what brought that Chinese anchorwoman to such statement?
It is the current territorial disputes that are occurring in the South China Sea.
Who owns the South China Sea?
Countries that are situated along the South China Sea have their own 200 nautical miles of EEZ, so no country or nation is in the position to ‘own’ a big body of water.
Does China own the SCS?
No.
Why? It is because, historically, the sea was only named the South China Sea as a route and to separate it to the other parts of the Pacific Ocean years ago when the Europeans started having interest to having trading opportunities to China.
So why is China claiming over the whole of the South China Sea?
It is because of the “Nine-dotted line” was originally an “eleven-dotted-line” first indicated by the then Kuomintang government of the Republic of China in 1947. It was then revised by a person called Zhou Enlai. No SEA countries protested against this claim until the 1970s. It was 2009 when China submitted their map to the UN claiming almost the whole of the SCS. This was, of course, challenged by the affected countries (Phils, VN, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia – even though they were not really affected by the claim).
Why is China’s claim ridiculous?
It is because their claim is solely based on historical heritage. They have no legal foundation or argument to this and they are clearly going against the international laws.
What I think is the reason for the claim?
Geographically, every nation has its own area or responsibility. This establishes boundaries and territories. However, territorial disputes are still occurring as two groups of uninhabited islands, Spratly and Paracel which are located within the South China Sea, were found to have good sources of crude oil (Chinese estimate: 17.7 billion tons. Other sources: 1.1 billion tons) and natural gases; adding to the rich fishing areas around the two archipelagos and being one of the busiest shipping routes.
Spratly’s was not mentioned as a part of the Philippines during the 1898 Washington Treaty, the 1900 Treaty of Paris, the 1951 Philippine-US military Alliance, and the 1953 Philippine Constitution. Also, before 1978, neither Malaysia nor Vietnam claimed power over these islands. It was only after the 1970s when Malaysia and the Philippines included Spratly’s to their territorial responsibility, which is by the way reasonable.
As of 2012, only ten reefs and one island of the Spratly are under Chinese control, with Mainland China accounting for nine reefs, Taiwan accounting for one island and one reef. Vietnam has control over 6 islands, 16 reefs, and 6 banks. The Philippines controls 7 islands and 3 reefs. Malaysia controls 1 artificial islands, 5 reefs, and 1 shoal, and Brunei controls 2. There are 750 reefs, islets, islands, etc. which comprises Spratly. Other parts of it are virtually occupied or controlled, uncontrolled but largely occupied, and/or unoccupied/uncontrolled.
If you will look on the map with the EEZs in it, you will see that there is a gap between all the EEZs. It clearly shows as well which nation has its share of the island, and which parts of the islands will be under no one’s responsibility. Honestly, China or Taiwan’s not even close to the disputed islands! It is the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia who has the islands within their areas of responsibility. Vietnam clearly doesn’t have any as well. The Scarborough Shoal is within the Philippines’ EEZ too. The only archipelago which will be under China and Vietnam is the Paracels.
That massive U-shaped dotted line that shows China’s claimed territorial waters is just utterly stupid and ridiculous. Based on what I have stated after the last question, I think it is clear what the motives are… plain greed.
Just a little update!
So we have finally decided on when we’re going to go to Hanoi, Sa Pa, and Halong Bay. He made the itinerary.
So, we’ll fly to Hanoi and spend a day there. Take the overnight train to Sa Pa and get a motorbike and cruise around Sa Pa. Then, we go back to Hanoi via the train and head to Halong Bay. After the cruise, we’ll head back to Hanoi and fly back to Saigon.
Then, I leave for Bali on the 23rd. I will be staying in the island for 2 weeks and get back on the 7th of August, just a day before he gets back from England.
So pumped for summer now!
“Where do the words go
When we have said them?”
— Margaret Atwood, from “The Small Cabin” (via pulmonaire)
My take on Singapore
Singapore’s a sterile country.
We got to see the budget terminal, which was horrible by the way, and Terminal 1, which was fab.
The roads were nice and neat. The traffic’s not that bad; it was breezy actually. The streets were nice and clean. It was so perfect that it doesn’t seem real anymore. The plan was to go up the Marina viewing deck but it will cost us 20 USD each. We reckon it won’t be justifiable to spend such amount for a short period of time. So, we went to the spitting lion and Orchard road instead.
We practically took a 3-hour walk around Singapore!
The place was nice but I wouldn’t want to live there. It’s too anal.
My impression of Jakarta
To be fair, I have only seen roughly 10% of Jakarta.
Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport’s average. There was free wifi when we got there and everything was properly labeled. The visa on arrival service was a breeze. Wikitravel said almost everyone in Jakarta speaks English but when we got there, hardly anyone speaks English. We took the Blue Bird Taxi to Ancol (pronounced as An-chol) Dreamland. On the way, the scenery reminded me of Malaysia then as we go closer to Ancol, the scenery got a bit grim. Poverty-stricken areas everywhere. It reminded me of Manila.
Ancol Dreamland was massive! It took us about half an hour to get to the stadium where Dream Theater was scheduled to play. It has restaurants in it, residential buildings, beach, paintball field, skating rinks, and a shopping mall; The only problem is, the place is not well kept.
I would still want to go back to Jakarta someday. Maybe explore the place even more.
“You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own and you know what you know. And you are the one who’ll decide where to go.”
— Dr. Seuss (via snowindecember)
