CHINA IS ONE of seven countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and - in China's view at least - Indonesia, plus Taiwan, claiming sovereignty over all or part the widespread group of tiny islands, reefs, and atolls in the SCS. These territorial disputes have become a major concern to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, and thus represent a threat to regional security. As such, they also pose serious strategic challenges for the United States and its Asian allies. This chapter will examine the early history of maritime conflict over the Paracel and Spratly islands, especially from the nineteenth century down to the early 1990s, with a special emphasis on China's maritime actions, including its 1974 expeditionary campaign to the Paracels and the 1988 clash over the Spratlys.

The Paracel islands, a group of 130 islands and reefs located about 190 nm (350 km) southeast of Hainan, are currently under sole Chinese control, and unlike the situation in the Spratlys this does not appear to be subject to change. By contrast, both the islands and the waters surrounding the Spratly islands remain highly disputed. The Spratly islands correspond generally with the area that the Chinese call Nansha Qundao, and the Vietnamese call Truong Sa. At one point, Japan specified that its claim included all of the area from 7° to 12° north and then from lll°30’ to 117°00’ east. Several western geographers describe the area as bounded by latitudes 4° to ll°30’ north and longitudes 109°30’ to 117°50’ east. The area that the Philippine government calls “Kalayaan” or “Freedomland” generally includes only those Spratly islands that lie west of Palawan and north of 7°40’ North latitude. China has an even larger claim encompassing 3°37’ to 11°55’ north latitude and 109°43’ to 117°47’ east longitude.10 The point here is that there is not even a common definition of where the Spratlys are located.

A similar problem exists with regard to how many islands are located in this region. The Spratly Island archipelago is a widespread group of approximately 170 small islands, shoals, and reefs, including some that are barely above water level at low tide. Under the best of circumstances, only a dozen of these could be called islands.