ABSTRACT

In the South China Sea dispute, the most controversial is the Chinese contention of a dash-line claim, which was announced in 1947, after studies and preparation by relevant governmental divisions. The Chiang Kai-shek’s Republican government drew the “eleven-dash line” on Chinese maps of the South China Sea, 1 enclosing the Spratly Islands and other chains, demonstrating that the ruling Nationalist Party (also dubbed as Kuomintang, KMT) had declared the reclamation of these land features. This dash-line claim contained twin messages. These land features were re-claimed and now under Chinese sovereignty. China’s sovereignty had been restored, indicating that it was an extension from the past, and would continue, suggesting that this sovereignty would be sustained and practiced in the future. Cartographers of the Republican Chiang regime drew the U-shape of eleven dashes in an attempt to enlarge China’s “living space” in the South China Sea. Following the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in the civil war in 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) adopted this cartographic claim, but had revised it into a “nine-dash line” after erasing two dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1953. 2

However, as an original authority of this dash-line claim, the Republic of China (the ROC, Taiwan) has long been a quiet claimant. The Chiang administration retreated to the island, after failing the civil to Mao’s Chinese Communist Party in 1949. On one hand, Taiwan stayed in rivalry with Mao’s China. On the other, however, Chiang and his predecessor adopted a proposition upholding claims over the South China Sea similar to Beijing. Due to the pending issue of the status of Taiwan and the Republic of China government, Taiwan (ROC)’s claim have long been marginalized, with voices of the people unheard. 3

The dash line, also dubbed as u-shaped line, has claimed around 90 percent of the South China Sea, without specifying whether the area constitutes one part of its territorial waters, or as maritime spaces which brought along economic interests. In actuality, Taiwan (ROC) has not acceded into the United Nations

Convention of Law of the Sea, despite that it passed relevant domestic legislations zoning its coastal and adjacent waters around its home and outcropping islands in both East and South China Seas. 4

During the two generations of the Chiang administration (Chiang Kai-Shek, from 1949 to 1975; Chiang Ching-Kuo, from 1978 to 1988), despite the drawn-out hostility across the Taiwan Strait, the two sides had seemingly reached a tacit understanding over the South China Sea issues. 5 In short, both sides would not protest against the other’s territorial claims over the disputed waters. 6 Rather, in certain occasions, they would manage to reaffi rm the dash-line and territorial claim as well.