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Writing the History of the South China Sea Disputes

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Enterprises, Localities, People, and Policy in the South China Sea

Part of the book series: Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific ((CSAP))

Abstract

There has been a rapid expansion of published writing on the South China Sea disputes in recent years but relatively little exploration of the disputes’ historic roots. Most of the accounts rely on a relatively small number of works published in the 1970s and 1980s. These reflect the state of knowledge about the issues at those times. The consequence is that contemporary debates about the disputes are being framed by the parameters set 40 years ago. Yet, a careful survey of those early works reveals a lack of primary source material and historical context.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Interestingly, Duanmu was not a member of the Communist Party, but of the China Democratic League (Mackerras 2001, p. 85).

  2. 2.

    This was disclosed by the Kuangtung Provincial government in 1933 (Cho 1933, 82, note 4).

  3. 3.

    The full list of Chinese names and their evolution can be found in Chen (1996).

  4. 4.

    Known as “war diaries,” these are daily operational journals created by various naval commands throughout the Navy during the Second World War .

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  1. Asia Programme, Chatham House, London, UK

    Bill Hayton

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  1. Bill Hayton
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  1. Taipei, Taiwan

    Jonathan Spangler

  2. Taiwan Center for Security Studies, Taipei, Taiwan

    Dean Karalekas

  3. National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Moises Lopes de Souza

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Hayton, B. (2018). Writing the History of the South China Sea Disputes. In: Spangler, J., Karalekas, D., Lopes de Souza, M. (eds) Enterprises, Localities, People, and Policy in the South China Sea . Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62828-8_1

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