By Shawn McHale, Associate Professor of History and
International Affairs, George Washington University The South
China Sea is one of the great connecting oceans of the world,
acting as a major conduit of Asian and global trade. It has also
been a worrisome site of conflict. In recent years, disputes
over territorial claims have led to armed clashes involving
China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. It has also led to
demonstrations. Arguments have spilled into cyberspace: on
YouTube, Google Earth, online newspaper articles, and chat
rooms, nationalist tempers have flared over their country’s
claims to these tiny islands, atolls, and reefs. Most of the
territorial claims over the South China Sea are surprisingly
weak, and none is incontestable. Here we must distinguish
between arguments over the Paracels, the far-flung cluster of
islands, reefs, and atolls closest to China, and those over the
Spratlys, a similarly widely spread set of islands further to
the south. Only China and Vietnam contest the Paracels, wher