Asian Nations Squabble Over Obscure String of Islands

Charts describe some of the Spratly Islands, scattered from Borneo to Vietnam, as “almost awash,” “dangerous ground,” “position approximate” or “existence doubtful.”

Welcome to a geopolitical oddity and potential Asian flash point: Hundreds of atolls and islets in the South China Sea, most of them unpopulated, that are seen as a security threat because six nations claim some or all of them.

No one is even sure how many Spratlys there are, because some are submerged at high tide or during monsoons, but they could be the key to control of vast fishing grounds and the seabed.

“The South China Sea is supposed to have very large oil and gas resources as well as hard mineral deposits,” Soendaroe Rachmad of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry told a conference in Kuala Lumpur.

“In the absence of clear agreement on the delimitation of each continental shelf, the potential for conflicts exist and may increase in the future.”

The islands straddle vital sea lanes for about 370 miles between the Philippines, Vietnam, China and Borneo. They begin 250 miles off southern Vietnam and end 105 miles north of Borneo.

Britain, France and Japan dropped their claims long ago. The remaining claimants are Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan, the Philippines and something called the Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads.

In the latest squabble, the Chinese Foreign Ministry accused Malaysia of infringing on its “undisputable” territorial rights to the islands, which Beijing calls Nansha, by planning to build an airstrip.

In September, Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak of Malaysia said his country would build the airstrip on Terumbu Layang-Layang, an atoll also known as Swallow Reef, for security purposes and to help promote tourism.

Taiwan also protested, declaring: “The islands are part of our territory. . . . Claims to them by other countries are completely unacceptable.”

Western diplomats, who demanded anonymity, said Vietnam has soldiers on more than 20 of the Spratlys, the Philippines on eight, China on at least six, Malaysia on three and Taiwan on one.

China, Taiwan and Vietnam claim sovereignty over the whole archipelago. Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines claim atolls within their self-proclaimed economic zones of 200 kilometers, about 125 miles.

Gen. Hashim Mohamad Ali, chief of Malaysia’s armed forces, said the area may be fought over unless rival claims are settled.

“Because the South China Sea is rich in natural resources such as oil, gas and fish and, more importantly, strategically placed as a vital sea line of communications,” he said, “an armed conflict may easily and quickly be exploited by interested parties, and worse, invite external intervention.”

China took a few of the Spratly reefs from Hanoi in a brief, one-sided naval battle in March, 1988, in which two Vietnamese ships were sunk and 77 sailors lost.

A month later, the Malaysian navy arrested Filipino fishermen near Philippine-held Rizal Reef, setting off a diplomatic row.

In an attempt to ease tensions, Indonesia sponsored a conference last July of delegates from the region.

They issued a joint statement saying: “Any territorial and jurisdictional dispute in the South China Sea should be resolved by peaceful means through dialogue and negotiation.”

There was no delegate from Morac-Songhrati-Meads, the creation of James George Meads, British captain of the ship Modeste. Before they were perceived as strategic and potentially rich, the islands were little more than his hobby.

Meads sailed through and named many of the Spratlys in the 1870s, formally claiming them as the personal property of himself and his American descendants.

The “republic” files occasional complaints against governments it views as intruders. The latest said it would not “tolerate any tampering, trespassing or titillating with any of the sacred island territories of our invincible republic.”