(Central News Agency, Singapore, comprehensive foreign news report on the 9th) China’s move to expand its influence in the Pacific region is now eyeing the Batanes Islands south of Taiwan. A group of scholars associated with the Chinese government have argued that the area belongs to China. This string of islands is critical to any U.S. effort to defend Taiwan.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Batanes Islands are just south of Taiwan, on the southern edge of a strait that China would likely have to control if it were to attack Taiwan.
These islands have been part of the Philippines since colonial times. However, after the above-mentioned scholars proposed earlier this year that the Batanes Islands actually belong to China, Chinese state media subsequently promoted this statement. This has also become Beijing’s latest “gray zone” operation to demonstrate its influence in the Pacific and beyond.
A college at Jinan University in Guangzhou issued a statement saying that at a seminar held in Guangzhou in June, participating Chinese scholars believed that the Batanes Islands are a geographical extension of Taiwan, and its sovereignty therefore belongs to China.
According to the statement, relevant scholars also said that the treaty that handed the Philippines over to American rule after the Spanish-American War did not include these islands. They also emphasized the cultural ties between Batanes residents and Taiwan's indigenous groups.
China has long sought to expand its influence in neighboring regions, often using means that do not escalate to physical occupation or armed conflict. For example, its coast guard controls access to disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea, Chinese military aircraft often intrude on the airspace around Taiwan, and Beijing has also established settlements in disputed areas in the Himalayas.
"We know very well that the Batanes are ours. The Batanes are not part of China," said Joseph Cultura, the mayor of Itbayat, which has about 19,000 residents.
The Philippines responded quickly. The defense secretary denounced the claim as absurd, and the National Historical Commission refuted it at length.
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines notes that the islands are part of the continental shelf extending from northern Luzon, emphasizing that when British explorers arrived in the 17th century, they found no traces of Chinese rule. Spain, the former colonial power, officially claimed the islands in 1783, and the Batanes have been represented in the Philippine national legislative body since the late 19th century.
For Beijing, even innocuous-sounding academic discussions are useful tools through which to gauge international reactions. Chinese scholars have also questioned Japan's sovereignty over places such as the Ryukyu Islands and the Diaoyu Islands (called the Senkaku Islands in Japan) in the past.
Making scholarly views public is another way Beijing can put pressure on its opponents. While Chinese officials have yet to formally back their claim to the Batanes, the academic discussion comes after the Philippines and Japan launched demarcation talks in waters east of Taiwan, which Beijing also considers part of its territory.
The analysis pointed out that China’s claim to the Batanes further provides legitimacy for its ships to operate in waters beyond the first island chain. Earlier this year, the Chinese Coast Guard stepped up patrols in waters east of Taiwan.
