By Gregory B. Poling

December 17, 2014

"If one passage in Bill Hayton's "The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia" is representative of the book’s tone and substance, it is his description of James Shoal off the coast of Malaysia, which he cites as evidence that "China's claim in the South China Sea is, to some extent, based on a translation error."

An official committee in January 1933 began compiling a list of South China Sea islands claimed by the Chinese government-mostly by translating the names of features on British admiralty charts. Unfortunately, no one on the committee realized that a shoal is an underwater feature, and instead translated the name using the Chinese word for a beach or sandbank. Fast forward 80 years and one finds Chinese marines in January 2014 holding a ceremony off the coast of Borneo, swearing to defend an area of seabed more than 60 feet underwater while dropping steles overboard to declare it Chinese territory since time immemorial."

Read more:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/gregory-b-poling-the-south-china-sea-by-bill-hayton-1418839025 

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