China’s ‘historic rights’ in the South China Sea
This article, published in the academic journal ‘Asian Affairs’, explores the origins of Chinese arguments for ‘historic rights’ in the South China Sea – rights that go beyond the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It finds them in the work of a single Taiwanese academic writing in the […]
Origins of China’s South China Sea claims
An academic article explaining how China came to claim remote islands in the South China Sea during the period between 1907 and 1947. This is, so far as I can tell, the definitive account. It is a story of confusion and accident, mistranslation and poor map-making. I hope that it shows there is nothing ‘sacred’ […]
CSIS South China Sea conference
I will be speaking at the fifth annual South China Sea conference organised by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC on Tuesday 21 July. Many of the key voices in discussions about the South China Sea will be there – including Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. […]
Fact, fiction and the South China Sea
Too much writing about the history of the South China Sea disputes relies on a very small number of books and papers with very poor evidential bases. In this article I show how much of the conventional wisdom originates from a few Chinese newspaper articles published in 1933 and 1974 – times of crisis in […]
Southeast Asia February book tour
I will be giving talks in four Southeast Asia capitals in mid-February. More details to follow but I believe that anyone can attend. There should be an opportunity to buy the book at each event. The talks will be: Kuala Lumpur, MIMA – Tuesday 10 February Singapore, SIIA – Tuesday 10 February Jakarta, CSIS – Wednesday 11 […]
Obscure Chinese oil companies in the SCS
An article I wrote for The Economist, telling the story of two relatively obscure Chinese oil companies and their contrasting approaches to exploring for oil in the South China Sea. Brightoil is going down the conventional route – risking confrontation with Vietnam – while Fosun has bought Roc and is working under Malaysian regulations. The […]
Who makes China’s policy?
I ventured into a debate between two eminent analysts of Chinese policy-making: Bonnie Glaser of CSIS in Washington and Linda Jakobson of the Lowy Institute in Sydney. Linda recently wrote a very good report highlighting how many of China’s actions in the South China Sea could be explained by the bureaucratic imperatives of the organisations […]
Global Asia – a ‘ fascinating account’
Nayan Chanda, the much respected former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, has written a lengthy review of the book for the excellent GlobalAsia website. He gives a good overview of the main elements of the book and adds a little vignette of his own about how the communist Vietnamese authorities issued a new map of the […]
WSJ ‘accessibility and accuracy’
A very nice review in the Wall Street Journal by Greg Poling of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. He calls the book, ‘the best combination of accessibility and accuracy so far published on the disputes’ – which is exactly what I hoped he would write! Greg’s a real expert on the nitty gritty of the […]
National Geographic Book Talk
An interview with Simon Worrall for National Geographic‘s Book Talk blog. An edited version of our conversation that necessarily simplifies some of my thoughts. Given that Simon wrote National Geographic’s feature on the Belitung Shipwreck (which features in Chapter One of the book) he knows a lot more than me about what happened. He was nice enough not […]