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| Taiping (Itu Aba) Island |
By Shannon Tiezzi
Taiwan unveils its “South China Sea Peace Initiative.”
On Tuesday, Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, announced a plan for dialing down tensions in the South China Sea, where Brunei, mainland China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam all have overlapping claims to various maritime features. Ma’s South China Sea Peace Initiative calls for shelving the disputes in favor of negotiating resource-sharing agreements.
Taiwan is in a unique position when it comes to the South China Sea. As the Republic of China, it inherited all of the ROC’s territorial claims, including the original 1947 “11-dash line” in the South China Sea. In fact, Taiwan occupies the largest natural island in the Spratlys, Itu Aba (known as Taiping Island in Taiwan), where it is engaged in its own construction activities.
Taiwan’s government has moved to defend its claims in other ways as well, such as increasing the size of military drills in the region and expanding military surveillance missions to include the South China Sea. In fact, the same day Ma announced the peace initiative, a group of 18 graduate students and two teachers returned from a trip to Itu Aba that was designed to strengthen Taiwan’s territorial claim.
Read the full story at The Diplomat