Chinese Ocean Policies Towards the South China Sea in a Transitional Period, 1946-1952

Ulises Granados

《The China Review An Interdisciplinary Journal on Greater China》 6卷1期 (2006/05) Pp. 153-181

摘要

This paper concerns the ＂Chinese ocean policy＂ with regard to the South China Sea in a transitional period, namely the late 1940s and early 1950s. Dealing with territorial conflict over the Spratly, Paracel, and Pratas Islands and Macclesfield Bank, China, as a coastal state, actively pushed what it saw as its core interests in its Southern Sea, and tried to defend them as best as it could. This paper has two aims. One is to describe the origin of the PRC's (and the ROC's) current policy vis-à-vis the Paracels and Spratlys. Both from a political and a military perspective, this policy has its origin in the post-War, 1946-1952 period, including the famous U-shaped dotted line enclosing all four archipelagoes claimed, denoting China's ＂traditional maritime boundary line＂ and her ＂historical waters.＂ A review of the period 1946-1952 is necessary to properly understand the modern history and historiography of the Chinese claim. The other aim is to highlight the economic aspects of the claim, that is, a policy of maritime economic development as being developed, not at a central-planning, decision-making level, but rather at lower governmental levels. This study aims to give sufficient emphasis to the economic dimension of China's policy in the immediate post-War period.