China Goes Island Grabbing Again...

...but this is not coral reef...

You have to give the People’s Republic of China (PRC) credit for consistency. They like islands.

On Sunday’s Midrats Podcast, we touched on this rather brazen act that would be laughable if not serious.

The Batanes Islands, which are covered by the so-called maritime delimitation talks between Japan and the Philippines, are legally China's sovereign territory and form a natural geographic extension of China's Taiwan island. China should take corresponding actions to assert its sovereignty over the Batanes, the Global Times learned from Chinese experts and scholars at a symposium.

The academic symposium on the sovereignty issue of the Batanes Islands was convened at Jinan University in South China's Guangdong Province, drawing dozens of experts and scholars in maritime affairs from leading Chinese universities and research institutions.

Yes, yes, I know…that is from Global Times, but it is helpful to hear from the PRC’s angle.

International law scholars systematically argued, from the standpoint of treaty law, that the Batanes Islands do not form part of Philippine territory. Ju Hailong, dean of the School of International Studies at Jinan University, argued that the Batanes Islands fall entirely outside Philippine territorial demarcations laid down by the Treaty of Paris signed in 1898 by the US and Spain. The Treaty of Manila of 1946 confined post-independence Philippine territory to areas south of 20 degrees north latitude, a boundary that excludes the Batanes Islands, which is situated wholly north of latitude 20 degrees.

Participating experts also corroborated with factual evidence that the Batanes Islands constitute affiliated islets of China's Taiwan region. Wang Yuanyuan, a research fellow at the Center for South China Sea History and Culture, National Institute for South China Sea Studies, elaborated, "Anthropological evidence confirms that the roughly 10,000 Ivatan residents of the Batanes share cognate languages, analogous customs and identical underground dwellings with the Tao people of Orchid Island in the Taiwan region."

Of course. Of course.

To be fair, Taiwanese academics have made similar arguments, but if we are going to justify things back a few thousand years, the Italians would like to have a word.

In summary, in modern era, they were claimed from obscurity the the Europeans, finalized by Spain. The U.S.A. then got it along with the rest of the Philippines after the Spanish American War, and then they simply went with the Philippines with independence.

Why does China want it? Simple: look at the map at the top of the post. The islands stand athwart the Bashi Channel, one of the choke points that constrains the PRC from the open Pacific. That—and the usual PRC hyper-nationalism bordering on old-school imperialism.

They live in a crowded neighborhood.

What does the Philippines think of all this bluster?

For his part, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. dismissed the claims of the Chinese academics as “baseless and ludicrous.”

“In their closed society, their people believe these things. Their citizens have been brainwashed. So, this is a concerning situation, and it is something that must be opposed,” he said.

“We should not allow this to go un-responded to. All academics in the world should douse cold water on this theory already. That is nonsense,” the Defense chief added.

Teodoro said the claim on Batanes by the Chinese scholars validates his suspicion that China has plans to control the entire Pacific Ocean.

“It signals a preconceived intention. It is also not far-fetched to think that this is part of their plan. And it validates what we have been saying—that they have a plan to control the entire Pacific Ocean,” he said.

He said the false claims will only strengthen the united action against “China’s irresponsible behavior.”

“And who will be to blame if anti-China sentiment develops? They will have only themselves to blame because of what they are doing…It’s no longer believable,” he added.

For his part, National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) spokesperson Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela said the push back must be immediate.

“Otherwise, if we do not debunk the lies they peddle over and over again, they are going to rewrite history once again,” he said.

“For all we know, China might eventually claim the Pasig River,” Tarriela said.

As expected, our friend Ray Powell is all over it.

What can be done?

China is a bully. What do bullies hate? When people call them on their BS.

What do bullies fear? When the other kids on the playground team up and stand against them.

From Japan down through Australia, the frontline nations in the western Pacific continue to grow closer and closer to each other and to the U.S.

More. Better. Faster.

The PRC won’t start a war over these islands, but like the Japanese, should one kick off, they are probably on the short list for the early grab.