Why China Will Never Surrender the South China Sea

(bright music) – Look at this map of the most
disputed water in the world. It’s a sea that is claimed
in part by seven countries. – [Reporter 1] Tensions are rising in one of the most hotly
contested regions on the planet, the South China Sea. – Including one that no
one likes to talk about. This sea is peppered with tiny islands, most of which look like this. Small rocks and sunken reefs. But even still, the countries here fight
over these little rocks. They build bases on them. They create new islands
where there were none. And today I wanna show you why? Specifically, why China claims
all of this ocean as theirs, basically the entire South China Sea. I’m gonna show you what China
hopes to gain from this claim, both resources and strategic territory. But perhaps more importantly, I wanna show you the story
that China tells its people and the world about this water. – [Reporter 2] Chinese construction crews have been dumping massive
amounts of white sand in seven spots of the South China Sea. – So this is the backstory
of the South China Sea (waves crashing) So to understand how we got
here, you have to rewind, to look at maps from
hundreds of years ago. Like this one. Here she is. I mean, there’s something
about seeing it on paper that just never gets old for me. So this map was commissioned by a wealthy Chinese merchant in around the early 1600s, maybe earlier, according to some experts. It’s the South China Sea, the map we’ve been looking
at so far in this video, and it’s mapped in
surprisingly accurate detail. – It’s an absolutely fascinating map because it does show in
great deal trading routes from the eastern Chinese coast all the way down to
through Southeast Asia. – Bill Hayton is a journalist and academic who has studied the
origins of China’s claim in the South China Sea. He’s been walking me through documents and maps that piece together the story of how China got this U-shaped line. At the time, China was a
big powerful civilization. They were a seafaring culture. They used the ocean for trade, and this map is kind of proof of that. You can see all these trade routes, these lines here that go
off into Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and off to the Indian Ocean. And importantly, this map shows a bunch of these islands here in the South China Sea. These are very important island groups. And soon you will understand
why it is so important that in this map from the 1600s, a Chinese merchant is
mapping these islands. I’m gonna put this back now. (map rustling) So Chinese merchants and explorers
knew about these islands. No one lived on them, but they would stop over
when the weather got bad. They would fish around them. Archeologists have found Chinese pottery, bowls and coins on these islands. But back then the Chinese
empire didn’t care about claiming these islands. There was no sense that
they would have any value. They were just some rocks
in the middle of the ocean. – This map is good evidence
of trading patterns. We have evidence of trading, but we don’t have evidence
of ownership or occupation because really, nobody
cared about such things. – That is until the French
arrived to Southeast Asia. You didn’t think I was
gonna make it this far without talking about
Europeans claiming land, right? Setting the stage for modern conflicts. – Its navy starts to colonize
what it calls Indochina, what’s now Vietnam. And that, of course, brings them into direct
conflict with China. – [Johnny] So it’s the 1930s and France has claimed ownership over these islands, which angers China and Japan. These islands, this water, has started to become more strategic to these growing empires. – So then a lot of the strategic thinkers in Britain and Paris and the US are thinking about who’s gonna control these little islands
in the South China Sea and what does it mean? – [Johnny] Especially Japan
who had followed the example of European empires and started growing an
empire of their own. By the late 1930s, Japan starts rapidly taking
over this whole region, including a lot of these
islands in the South China Sea. – Japanese have started
surveys and thinking, “Well, we can use this
for a seaplane harbor or a submarine dock or
something like that. During the Second World War, I mean, the South China Sea basically becomes a Japanese lake. So for the first time in history, one power controls almost the whole of the coast,
of the South China Sea. – Eventually the US
would enter World War II and beat back Japan, forcing them to give up control of all of this territory that it had conquered during the war, including all of these islands
in the South China Sea. (bright music)
(waves crashing) World War II made it clear that all of these rocky islands
were suddenly important. They were strategic locations at a very important
crossroads in the world. It also made it clear that if your country doesn’t claim
them, someone else will. So we have a bit of a scramble
for all these islands. China, of course, thinks
that most of this is theirs. Remember the maps and the pottery? Vietnam, who’s going through
an independence movement is split in two, but the south comes out and says a lot of these islands
are close to Vietnam. Not to mention their
former colonizer, France, formally claimed them, so they should belong to Vietnam. The Philippines is busy establishing its newly independent country, so it doesn’t claim any
of these islands at first. But strangely, one Filipino businessman goes out to a cluster of 53 islands and claims that he discovered them and he declares his own country called, wait for it… The Free Territory of Freedomland. (chuckles) That name. Now this Filipino businessman only occupied these
islands for like 90 days, but his claim technically
lasted like a couple decades before eventually, the Filipino government forced him to give it up. They actually tried to
use his claim to say that, that these islands belong
to the Philippines. I mean, you can see how
difficult this is getting. There are hundreds of little, tiny islands scattered throughout the South China Sea. They weren’t that important
for many centuries, and suddenly they became
very important all at once. But now let me show you the map
that will change everything. This is perhaps the biggest moment in the history of the South China Sea. Hold on a sec.
(suspenseful music) Let’s go back up to China really quick. And there’s actually not just
one China. There are two. And look at this moment, it’s right after World War II, so it’s like the late 1940s. There’s the nationalist government, the Republic of China is what it’s called. They’re like the main government of China. But then there is a communist revolution, a bunch of revolutionaries that are fighting to
overthrow the government. It’s a civil war, but even
during this civil war, the Republic of China, the nationalists, aren’t gonna let all these other countries take over these islands. So they send their navy out to some of the largest
islands in these groups, and these ships show up to these islands basically saying we’re
gonna claim these for China. Oh, and little side note here, guess where they got these naval ships from the United States of America. Who gave them to the Republic
of China to support them because they were fighting communists, but they’re using these ships to claim islands in the South China Sea. – And so the 12th of December
1946 is the first time that any Chinese official goes to a Spratly Island and
sticks a flag in it. Nobody ever lives there permanently, but people go and sort of stick a flag, and then the other guy comes
and pulls the flag out, sticks their own flag there.
(intense music) – And then, they release
this map. Take a look. (inquisitive music) This is the official map where they claim what
they say is their water in the South China Sea. It’s made up of these dashes,
11-dashes to be precise. Drawn around the periphery of
the entire South China Sea. This map is basically saying, “Hey guys, this water has always
been ours and remains ours. Stay back. Now that Japan is defeated, we are going to formally assert that this water is ours
as it always has been.” This is the most important map and the most important
moment in this history. I’ve always been mesmerized
by the sort of ambiguity and ambition of this line, and I don’t have a solid theory as to the motives of the
people who decided to draw it and what they were after. And again, especially in the context of a divided nationalist government that is being hounded by
communist revolutionaries and soon about to lose a war, and yet they make time to draw a map and release it to the world. What’s going on here? – So at the end of the second World War, you still had a country
which didn’t really, you know, defined its boundaries. And so they called upon
geography professors in 1946, specifically with regard to the sea, to try and work out which
islands China was going to claim. And go back to this old Atlas of 1936, and they say, “This is
where the line should be.” (waves crashing) – Okay, back up to China where there’s a civil war happening and one side is winning, the communists, led by Mao Zedong, and the Republic of China is
fleeing looking for safety. It’s their government, their military, and their civilian followers. Millions of people all running
away from the communists. And they end up here at
these 180 kilometers straight where they cross it to this
Chinese island of Taiwan. They were safe here. The communists couldn’t cross this strait because their navy and air
force weren’t strong enough. Plus, they figured that the US
would come to their defense. So now we still have these two Chinas both claiming to be the real China and who both hate each other. Okay, back to the South China Sea. What did Mao Zedong do
with this South China Sea after he took over mainland China? Well, he adopted the same map that the Republic of China had drawn this 11-dash line that
encompasses the whole sea. So now you have both of these Chinas, China and Taiwan both claiming
the same body of water. And this big claim overlaps with the claims coming in from
all these other countries. So this is our context. This is how we got here. China feels entitled to all of this water. They draw an 11-dash line, they split into two Chinas who
both claim this 11-dash line, and it’s like 1950 or something. Now, a few years later, the mainland China, the communists, did remove two of these
dashes from the 11-dash line. They gave up an island and some water back to North Vietnam as a gesture of friendship
to their communist comrades. So now mainland China has a nine dash line and the Republic of China,
Taiwan, has an 11-dash line. I mean, this is getting weird. As the 20th century progresses, the scramble continues as countries start backing up their claims with military might, trying to establish a physical presence on the islands that they claim. So Taiwan sends their troops
back to Taiping Island, which they still hold today, and things start heating up even more when the global economy
starts to come online and we realize that this water is along critical shipping lanes, it’s good water for fishing, and it is strategically placed militarily. And then in the late 1960s, they discover oil in the South China Sea. And once again, the race is on. – So it’s a kind of, you know, all of these emerging nation states standing up and standing proud, really. – South Vietnam tries to
make good on its claim in the Spratly Islands by sending settlers to claim the islands and working
with foreign oil companies to start drilling. China starts drilling too in the Paracels. A lot of Chinese fishermen
are also down here and south Vietnam doesn’t like this. So they send their army to
kick these fishermen out. China doesn’t take kindly to this. And so they then send six naval vessels and two support jets to
fight the South Vietnamese, taking full control of these islands and getting into a clash that
kills 70 Vietnamese troops. And once they do this, China
decides they don’t wanna leave. So they start setting
up more infrastructure on these islands, having a permanent presence and controlling them completely. Over the years, the islands start filling up with more and more military bases and outposts. It becomes a crowded neighborhood where everyone is fighting
for a slice of oil or shipping lanes, minerals, or just a strategic military location. Needless to say, this way of doing things
is not a great way to solve territorial
disputes in the water. Like whoever shows up first and puts their little push pin on the map, it’s not a way to avoid conflict. Luckily, the law of the sea
was just around the corner. So while all these countries were fighting over the South China Sea, the international community was working on solving the problem of how to determine what country gets what water. The world was getting better at finding valuable
resources in the deep ocean and we really needed
rules on who owned what. – Communist China takes part in the discussions on the law
of the sea as a full member. And so therefore, it’s kind of a… If you like, represents
something that they agreed to. So in theory, it’s bound
by the rules of UNCLOS which say that, you know, you can claim territorial
sea of 12 nautical miles. You can then make a resource claim that goes up to 200 nautical miles. But that doesn’t really fit with the U-shaped line claim. – And almost every country
on earth agreed to this. They ratified UNCLOS except
for one big exception, the United States of America. Yes, the United States, while they do follow the norms of UNCLOS have not ratified it, which is kind of a trend with the US. Like they want to
preserve the global order, but they don’t want to necessarily
agree to all of the laws because they don’t like to be constrained. (waves crashing)
(gentle music) Back to the South China Sea, UNCLOS was supposed to create order, create a framework, through which all these
countries can make their claims and work things out peaceably. But that didn’t happen. In fact, the whole 200 nautical mile rule incentivized countries to try
to claim these little islands because if you claim this little island, you get 200 nautical
miles off of that island, so countries continue to
build things on these islands, especially China, who’s built
all sorts of military bases and has even resorted
to building new islands where there were none, which like someday I want to go there and see what that looks like. Like I’ve seen it from
above these satellite photos of how they’re dredging
up all of this sand and putting it on these reefs, but it just never made sense to me how they can build islands. (gentle music) – And so now China has then sort of said, well, we’re not just
talking about one island, we’re talking about groups of islands. And if they’re a group of island, could we draw a line around
the whole group of islands, and then claim from there? And everyone else is saying, “No, that’s not what it says in the text.” – China continues to this day
to claim the nine dash line as their official claim
to the South China Sea. And by the way, so does Taiwan though they
claim the 11-dash line. We don’t hear about that much. In 2016, the Philippines sued China in the International Court of Arbitration saying that China was violating UNCLOS and infringing in the Filipino EEZ with their nine dash line. China declined to participate
in these proceedings saying that the court had
no jurisdiction to rule in what they view as Chinese waters. But the court proceeded and came out with a ruling that said that China’s nine dash line was totally illegal or
lawless in their words. – Yeah, I think it’s significant that China isn’t just
saying, “It’s ours, go away. We’ve got a bigger Navy than you.” It is also saying what
we’re doing is legal, but other countries don’t
accept the legal arguments. – I’m looking at the legal rebuttal from the Chinese government
during this tribunal. And it basically tells the story we’ve just laid out here in this video. The Chinese activities in South China Sea date back over 2,000 years, China was the first country
to discover, name, explore, and exploit the resources of
the South China Sea Islands and the first to continuously exercise sovereign powers over them. And they talk about
how in the 30s and 40s, foreigners, especially Japan, illegally seized some parts
of the South China Sea. There were some wars. And then after World War II, the Chinese government resumed
exercising its sovereignty over the South China Sea. And that all of these acts affirm China’s territorial sovereignty and relevant maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea. This history is core to their claim. – At the bottom, it’s an argument over who owns each individual rock and reef. And China, you know, has a good claim to being the first country to
have stuck a flag in certain, you know, rocks or reefs and then maintained a presence there. – Okay, I understand the argument now that we’ve gone through the history, but if maps, pottery, fishing activity all
thousands of years ago is what you need to make a
modern day maritime claim, then other countries like Vietnam and even the Philippines
would have a similar claim. One thing I’ve learned is
that the time machine game of who got here first is not a useful way to settle border disputes, it’s just not. You can always go back further. But even still, China continues to assert this nine dash line even as it causes major tension with almost all their neighbors. And this gets to a really
important aspect of this water. It’s the reason we started this video showing you all of those old maps, that pottery.
(suspenseful music) China’s nine dashes on a map is not a matter of law
but of national identity. It’s a core part of the
country’s national story of China being this
continuous civilization, uninterrupted for thousands of years. And again, this is Taiwan’s
story and claim as well. – When Xi Jinping talks about, you know, the great rejuvenation
of the Chinese nation, there’s definitely a
territorial component to that. And the U-shaped line is printed in every Chinese passport now. It’s very much alive. It’s part of the sort of
patriotic education campaign. Chinese school kids are
taught about the line. They’re taught that, you know, China was humiliated by the foreign powers and that this, you know, was a sign of China becoming a, you know, respected nation state. – This claim and others in the region has contributed to a rising, and falling, and rising of tension over the years. And right now, that tension is rising. And that is the next part of this story,