By By Felix K. Chang

December 13, 2014

"Last Friday, the U.S. Department of State released a 26-page technical report on China's maritime claims in the South China Sea.  It detailed the confusion that surrounds those claims.

Starting with the unexplained differences between China's claim lines on its 1947 and 2009 maps of the region, the report went on to identify "at least three different interpretations that China might intend, including that the dashes [on its maps] are (1) lines within which China claims sovereignty over the islands, along with the maritime zones those islands would generate under the [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]; (2) national boundary lines; or (3) the limits of so-called historic maritime claims of varying types."[1]  (Together, those dashed lines are what observers have often referred to as China's "nine-dash" or "U-shaped" line in the South China Sea.)"

Read more:

http://www.eurasiareview.com/13122014-lines-water-us-chinas-claims-south-china-sea-analysis/ 

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