'Since Time Immemorial': China's Historical Claim in the South China Sea.

摘要

Four archipelagos in the South China Sea are territorially disputed: the Paracel, Spratly, and Pratas Islands, and Macclesfield Bank. The People's Republic of China and Republic of China's claims are embodied by a nine-dashed U-shaped boundary line originally drawn in an official Chinese map in 1948, which encompasses most of the South China Sea. Neither side has clarified what the line represents. Using ancient Chinese maps and texts, archival documents, relevant treaties, declarations, and laws, this thesis will conclude that it is best characterized as an islands attribution line, which centres the claim simply on the islands and features themselves. It does not delineate a historic rights waters zone, which confer certain exploitation and regulation privileges over all of the waters the line contains on the basis of historic Chinese dominance. The period of time examined is from 1644 to 2013; from the Qing Dynasty to the present.