Scarborough Shoal (also known as Scarborough Reef/Panatag Shoal/Huangyan
Island/Minzhu Jiao/Bajo de Masinloc) - Geographically
situated not too far from the also-contested Spratly Island and Paracel
Islands, this mound of sand has similar sovereignty issues to it's more
well-known neighbours. The Philippines controls and runs this group, but China
(People's Republic of China) lays claim to it, as part of it's Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha
Islands Authority, and Taiwan (Republic of China) expresses
sovereignty too, in the context of being the 'true ruler of China'. Fishing is
important in this part of the ocean, and this is probably the main reason for
such a high demand on an circumspect isolated bunch of small low-lying islands
and reefs.Scarborough Shoal or Scarborough Reef: (Chinese name: Huangyan Island, Philippine name: Panatag Shoal, Bajo de Masinloc). , more correctly described as a group of islands and reefs in an atoll shape than a shoal, is located between the Macclesfield Bank and Luzon Island of the Philippines in the South China Sea.
The shoal was named after a tea-trade ship Scarborough which was
wrecked on the rock with everyone perishing on board in the late 18th century.
Geography
The shoal
forms a triangle-shaped chain of reefs and islands (but mostly rocks) 55
kilometres (34 mi) around with an of area 150 square kilometers. It has a lagoon with area of
130 km² and depth of about 15 metres (49 ft). The shoal is a
protrusion from a 3,500 m deep abyssal plain. Several of the islands including
"South Rock" are 1/2 m to 3 m high and many of the reefs are just
below water at high tide. Near the mouth of the lagoon are the ruins of an iron
tower, 8.3 m high. To the east, the 5,000 - 6,000 meter deep Manila
Trench separates the shoal from the Philippine archipelago.
It is
about 123 miles (198 km) west of Subic Bay.
The nearest landmass is Palauig, Zambales, on Luzon Island in the Philippines,
137 miles (220 km) away.
Activities in the Surrounding Area
The shoal and its surrounding area
are rich fishing grounds. A significant number of Chinese fishermen have been
arrested by Philippine officials in this area, particularly during 1998-2001.
Most arrests were for alleged using illegal methods of fishing and catching
endangered and protected species.
There are thick layers of
guano lying on the rocks in the area. Several Filipino-sponsored and
Chinese-sponsored diving excursions and amateur ham radio operations, DXpeditions
(1994, 1995, 1997 and 2007), have been carried out in the area.
Sovereignty Dispute
The People’s Republic of China and
Republic of China (Taiwan)
Map depicting China's territory in South China Sea, by
Ministry of the Interior, ROC, 1947
The People's Republic of China and the Republic
of China (Taiwan) claim that the shoal was first discovered and drawn in a
map in the Yuan Dynasty as early as 1279 and was historically
used by Chinese fishermen. In 1279, Guo
Shoujing, a Chinese astronomer, performed surveying of the South
China Sea, and the surveying point was reported to be the Scarborough
Shoal. In 1935, China regarded the shoal as part of the Zhongsha
Islands. In 1947, the shoal was given the name Minzhu Jiao. In 1983,
it was renamed Huangyan Island with Minzhu Jiao reserved as a
second name. In 1956, China protested Philippine remarks that South China Sea
islands in close proximity to Philippine territory should belong to the
Philippines. China's Declaration on the territorial Sea, promulgated in
1958, says in part,
The breadth of the Territorial Sea of the People's Republic
of China shall be twelve nautical miles. This applies to all territories of the
People's Republic of China, including the Chinese mainland and its coastal
islands, as well as Taiwan and its surrounding islands, the Penghu Islands, the
Dongsha Islands, the Xisha Islands, the Zhongsha Islands [italics
added], the Nansha Islands and all other islands belonging to China which are
separated from the mainland and its coastal islands by the high seas.
China reaffirmed its claim of sovereignty over the Zhongsha Islands in its
1992 Law on the territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone. China claims all the
islands, reefs, and shoals within a U-shaped line in the South China Sea drawn
in 1947 as its territory. Scarborough shoal lies within this area.
China further asserted its claim shortly after the
departure of the US Navy force from Subic, Zambales, Philippines. In the late
1970s, many scientific expedition activities organized by State Bureau of
Surveying, National Earthquake Bureau and National Bureau of Oceanography were
held in the shoal and around this area. In 1980, a stone marker reading
"South China Sea Scientific Expedition" was installed on the South
Rock, but was removed by Philippines in 1997.
The Philippine government has proposed taking the
Panatag issue to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, but the
Chinese government has rejected this, insisting on bilateral discussions.
Territorial map claimed by the Philippines (not fully
acknowledged by other countries)
The Philippines claims that as early as the Spanish
colonization of the Philippines, Filipino fishermen were already using the area
as a traditional fishing ground and shelter during bad weather. In 1957, The
Philippine government conducted an oceanographic survey of the area and
together with the US
Navy force based in then U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay in Zambales,
used the area as an impact range for defense purposes. An 8.3 meter high flag
pole flying a Philippine flag was raised in 1965. A small
lighthouse was also built and operated the same year. In 1992, the Philippine
Navy rehabilitated the lighthouse and reported it to the International Maritime Organization
for publication in the List of Lights. As of 2009, the military-maintained
lighthouse is non-operational.
Several official Philippine maps published by Spain and United States in
18th and 20th centuries show Scarborough Shoal as Philippine territory. The
18th-century map "Carta hydrographica y chorographica de las Islas
Filipinas" (1734) shows the Scarborough Shoal then was named as Panacot
Shoal. The map also shows the shape of the shoal as consistent with the current
maps available as today. During the 1900s Mapa General. Islas Filipinas,
Observatorio de Manila and US Coast and Geodetic Survey Map includes the
Scarborough Shoal named as "Baju De Masinloc".In 1792, another map
drawn by the Malaspina expedition and published in 1808 in Madrid, Spain also
showed Bajo de Masinloc as part of Philippine territory. The map showed the
route of the Malaspina expedition to and around the shoal. It was reproduced in
the Atlas of the 1939 Philippine Census, which was published in Manila a year
later and predates the controversial 1947 Chinese South China Sea Claim Map
that shows no chinese name on it .Another topographic map drawn in 1820 shows
the shoal, named there as "Bajo Scarburo", as a constituent part of
Sambalez (Zambales province).
The Scarborough Shoal is not included within the territorial lines defined
in the Treaty of Paris (1898) between the United
States, Treaty of Washington (1900) between
Spain and the United States,Convention
Between the United States and Great Britain (1930), 1935 Constitution of the Philippines,
Republic Act No. 3046 "Act to Define the Baselines of the Territorial Sea
of the Philippines"(1961), or the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines.
The Philippine Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) asserts that the basis of Philippine sovereignty and
jurisdiction over the rock features of Bajo de Masinloc is not premised on the
cession by Spain of the Philippine archipelago to the United States under the
Treaty of Paris, and argues that the matter that the rock features of Bajo de
Masinloc are not included or within the limits of the Treaty of Paris as
alleged by China is therefore immaterial and of no consequence.
The Philippines bases its claim on the principle of terra
nullius, which holds that it was previously unclaimed by a sovereign
state, which is also applied by the Philippines
in its claims to the Spratly Islands. By virtue of the Presidential Decree No.
1599 issued by President Ferdinand Marcos on June 1978, the Philippines
claims an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) up to 200
nautical miles (370 km) from the baselines from which their territorial
sea is measured.In 2009, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo enacted the Philippine
Baselines Law of 2009 (RA 9522). The new law classifies the Spratly
Islands and the Scarborough Shoal as a regime of islands under the
Republic of the Philippines.
The DFA further cites the Island of Palmas Case, where the sovereignty
of the island was adjudged in favor of the Netherlands because of effective
jurisdiction and control despite the historic claim of Spain. The Philippines
has exercised effective jurisdiction and effective occupation of the shoal
since its independence. It also explains that the Exclusive Economic Zone claim
on the waters around Scarborough is different from the sovereignty exercised by
the Philippines in the shoal.
China's
naval intrusion to the Philippine territory since Saturday April 7, 2012 in the
Scarborough Shoal / or also called
Panatag Shoal is a follow-up to its recent forays into Philippine
western territorial waters. It is the fifth times where China Intruded the
Philippine Territory since June 2011.
China
has confronted Philippine military and civilian vessels in the following
places:
- Recto Bank
- Rajah Soliman Reef
- Quirino Atoll
- Escoda Shoal.
- The recent is the Panatag Shoal / Scarborough Shoal.
Source: Wikipedia
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