Fact, fiction and the South China Sea

Posted by on May 25, 2015 in Online, South China Sea | No Comments

timthumb.phpToo 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 the South China Sea. On proper examination, it’s clear that some of these sources don’t actually say what later authors said they say while others are simply wrong. In short they are unreliable bases from which to write reliable histories or make evidential judgements.

You can read the article at the Asia Sentinel site here.

You can download a pdf version here