copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-12): Under the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the 1935 Constitution was adopted, reiterating the national territory of the Philippines, which included Scarborough Shoal and the Kalayaan or Spratly Islands.[24] After regaining independence in 1946, the Philippines again asserted its claims to the Spratly islands. The Americans at the time discouraged the Philippines to avoid conflict with the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek, who was an ally of the United States. In 1946, Vice President Elpidio Quirino reiterated the "New Southern Islands", the forerunner name for Kalayaan, as part of the Philippines.[25] [...] The Philippines has invoked its mutual defense treaty with the US to obtain US assistance in repelling Chinese forces from islands claimed by the Philippines. Signed in 1951, the treaty stipulates the two countries to defend each other in case of an attack from an external party. However, US does not include the Spratly Islands in its understanding of Philippine territory. Instead, the US limited itself in continuously supporting the Philippine defense programs with military and intelligence aid and training, and a variety of diplomatic measures aimed at sending a "strong message" to Beijing.[76] Such "strong messages" and the ASEAN intervention are believed to have calmed China's previously aggressive drive in the Spratly region.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-08): In 1956, a private Filipino citizen, Tomás Cloma, unilaterally declared a state on 53 features in the South China Sea, calling it "Freedomland". In December 1974, Cloma was arrested and forced to sign a document to convey to the Philippines whatever rights he might have had in the territory for one peso.[43] Cloma sold his claim to the Philippine government, which annexed (de jure) the islands in 1978, calling them Kalayaan.[citation needed] On 11 June 1978, President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines issued Presidential decree No. 1596, declaring the Spratly Islands (referred to therein as the Kalayaan Island Group) as Philippine territory.[44] [...] In 1734, the Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Islas Filipinas (commonly referred as the Velarde map) was published by the Spanish colonial government. According to Philippine judge Antonio Carpio, the map shows Philippine sovereignty over the Spratly Islands (referred as Los Bajos de Paragua) and is the earliest map showing sovereignty over the said territories.[101][102][103] Philippine officials and writers also assert that the 1808 and 1875 editions of Carita General del Archipelago Filipino, published by the Spanish colonial government, included the Spratly islands as sovereign territory of the Philippines and was recognized by the international community.[104][105][106]
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-01-01): The Spratly Islands consist of more than 100 small islands or reefs surrounded by rich fishing grounds -- and potentially by gas and oil deposits. China, Taiwan, and Vietnam all claim the islands in their entirety, while portions are claimed by Malaysia and the Philippines. Around 70 disputed islets and reefs in the Spratly Islands are occupied by China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Since 1985, Brunei has claimed a continental shelf that overlaps a southern reef but has not made any formal claim to the reef. Brunei claims an exclusive economic zone over this area. [...] Country name conventional long form: none conventional short form: Spratly Islands etymology: named after a British whaling captain Richard SPRATLY, who sighted Spratly Island in 1843; the name of the island eventually passed to the entire archipelago Military - note around 70 disputed islets and reefs in the Spratly Islands are occupied by China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-07-07): Countries have wrangled over territory in the South China Sea for centuries, but tension has grown in recent years. [...] Although largely uninhabited, the Paracels and the Spratlys may have reserves of natural resources around them. There has been little detailed exploration of the area, so estimates are largely extrapolated from the mineral wealth of neighbouring areas. [...] The other major claimant to the area is the Philippines, which invokes its geographical proximity to the Spratly Islands as the main basis of its claim for part of the grouping.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-07-02): The Spratly Islands and Territorial Rights [...] The Spratly Islands area (Fig. 1) is located between 11°30′ to 4° N and 109°30′ to 117°50′ E and spreads out over a vast area of ocean measuring 240,000 km2, roughly equivalent to the size of the United Kingdom (UK) (Dzurek 1996). It is clustered in a semiclosed sea, namely the South China Sea, in the shape of a parallelogram between the Philippine island of Palawan and the southeast coast of Vietnam (Denoon and Brams 1997). There are at least 19 islands (above water at high tides) within the meaning of Article 121 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that can undoubtedly be acquired as territory under international law, as confirmed in the 2016 South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China) award (PCA 2016). These islands are Itu Aba Island, Thitu Island, West York... [...] Loja MH (2016) The Spratly Islands as a single unit under international law: a commentary on the final award in Philippines/China arbitration. Ocean Dev Int Law 47(4):309–326
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-01-01): The Spratly Islands consist of more than 100 small islands or reefs surrounded by rich fishing grounds - and potentially by gas and oil deposits. They are claimed in their entirety by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, while portions are claimed by Malaysia and the Philippines. About 45 islands are occupied by relatively small numbers of military forces from China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Since 1985, Brunei has claimed a continental shelf that overlaps a southern reef but has not made any formal claim to the reef. Brunei claims an exclusive economic zone over this area. [...] Taiwan-Brunei-China-Malaysia-Philippines-Vietnam: all of the Spratly Islands are claimed by China (including Taiwan) and Vietnam; parts of them are claimed by Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines; despite no public territorial claim to Louisa Reef, Brunei implicitly lays claim by including it within the natural prolongation of its continental shelf and basis for a seabed median with Vietnam; the islands are strategically located in the South China Sea and are surrounded by rich fishing groups and potential oil and natural gas deposits; claimants in November 2002 signed the "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea," which eased tensions but fell short of a legally binding "code of conduct"; in March 2005, the national oil companies of China, the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct marine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands; China’s island-building and military presence in the archipelago remain controversial
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-07-04): As part of the larger South China Sea dispute, the long-standing Spratly Islands dispute is an ongoing territorial dispute regarding ocean areas and the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands to the north – two island chains claimed in whole or in part by a number of countries. The Spratly Islands consist of hundreds of islands and reefs. The 750 spits of lands that make up the Spratly Islands are small and largely uninhabited. However it is their strategic location in the middle of several major trade routes, being the home to fishing grounds which supply people across the region, as well as the possibility of their containing natural resources which have made the islands an extremely valuable commodity. It is worth noting that there has been little detailed exploration of the area, so estimates are largely extrapolated from the mineral wealth of neighbouring areas. [...] With the Spratly Islands falling in close proximity to a vast number of important shipping paths and given that more than half of the world’s top ten shipping ports are also located in and around the South China Sea, any change in shipping patterns through such an area has the potential to impact trade worldwide.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-04-11): Enter Thitu — an island that the Philippines calls Pag-asa, while China calls it Zhongye. It is the only civilian-inhabited island of the Spratlys, and its approximately 250 full-time residents see their quiet existence as both an escape and an act of resistance. By continually occupying the spit of sand, they hope to keep it in the hands of the Philippines. [...] Since then, the Philippines' more China-friendly policies under the previous government have done an about-face under the country's current President Marcos, who has made defending Manila's territorial claims of the Spratly Islands a priority. [...] China has repeatedly said the Philippines has no legitimate claim to the island it calls Zhongye, nor to other Spratly land features or the waters around them. China says it is blocking Filipino resupply boats because they are carrying construction materials, not food.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-05-17): The scope of the territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea was clarified in the 2016 SCS Arbitration between the Philippines and China. According to the Arbitral Tribunal, the Spratly Islands consist of low-tide elevations not susceptible to appropriation and high-tide elevations that are not islands but rocks and entitled only to a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea. China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam claim these rocks, but none may treat the rocks as an offshore archipelago. [...] Nonetheless, in 1978, the Philippines formally claimed the Spratly Islands as an offshore archipelago arguing that "while other states have laid claims to some of these areas, their claims have lapsed by abandonment and cannot prevail over that of the Philippines on legal, historical, and equitable grounds." Still, then-U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance did not declare the MDT applicable to the disputed Spratly Islands. Rather, Document 578 of American Foreign Policy Basic Documents 1977-1980 is a 1979 letter to then-Philippine Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Romulo, in which Vance further clarified the U.S. legal interpretation of the MDT. He declared that armed attack under the MDT refers to external armed aggression against any part of Philippine metropolitan territory as defined by the 1898 Treaty of Paris between Spain and the U.S. and the 1900 Treaty of Washington between Great Britain and the U.S. (amended in 1930), as well as island territories in the Pacific that are under Philippine jurisdiction.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-12-01): The PRC cannot lawfully assert a maritime claim â including any Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims derived from Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands â vis-a-vis the Philippines in areas that the Tribunal found to be in the Philippinesâ EEZ or on its continental shelf. Beijingâs harassment of Philippine fisheries and offshore energy development within those areas is unlawful, as are any unilateral PRC actions to exploit those resources. In line with the Tribunalâs legally binding decision, the PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to Mischief Reef or Second Thomas Shoal, both of which fall fully under the Philippinesâ sovereign rights and jurisdiction, nor does Beijing have any territorial or maritime claims generated from these features. As Beijing has failed to put forth a lawful, coherent maritime claim in the South China Sea, the United States rejects any PRC claim to waters beyond a 12-nautical mile territorial sea derived from islands it claims in the Spratly Islands (without prejudice to other statesâ sovereignty claims over such islands). As such, the United States rejects any PRC maritime claim in the waters surrounding Vanguard Bank (off Vietnam), Luconia Shoals (off Malaysia), waters in Bruneiâs EEZ, and Natuna Besar (off Indonesia). Any PRC action to harass other statesâ fishing or hydrocarbon development in these waters â or to carry out such activities unilaterally â is unlawful. [...] Protecting and Preserving a Free and Open South China Sea
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-03-14): The award addresses three main substantive issues: (a) the so-called "nine-dash line" and China’s claim to historic rights in the South China Sea, (b) the status of certain maritime features in the South China Sea and (c) the legality of Chinese activities in the South China Sea. Because of jurisdictional limits, however, the Arbitral Tribunal did not deal with matters related to territorial sovereignty over the disputed maritime features between the parties. That means that the tribunal did not decide who owned the maritime features located in the South China Sea, such as the Spratly Islands, that are claimed by both China and the Philippines or any other coastal state in the region. Similarly, the tribunal did not delimit any maritime boundaries between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea. [...] The Spratly Islands are a disputed group of 14 islands, islets and cays and more than 100 reefs, sometimes grouped in submerged old atolls. The archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia and southern Vietnam. The islands have no indigenous inhabitants, but offer rich fishing grounds and may contain significant oil and natural gas reserves. Some of the islands have civilian settlements, but of the approximately 45 islands, cays, reefs and shoals that are occupied, all contain structures that are occupied by military forces from Malaysia, Taiwan, China, the Philippines and Vietnam. Additionally, Brunei has claimed an exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-12-19): The United States supports the Philippines’ continued calls upon the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to respect the international law of the sea in the South China Sea, as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and its legal obligations pursuant to the 2016 arbitral ruling. The reported escalating swarms of PRC vessels in the vicinity of Iroquois Reef and Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands interfere with the livelihoods of Philippine fishing communities, and also reflect continuing disregard for other South China Sea claimants and states lawfully operating in the region. Furthermore, we share the Philippines’ concerns regarding the unsafe encounter that the PRC Coast Guard initiated with Philippines naval forces in the South China Sea, as documented before the Senate of the Philippines on December 14. The United States stands with our ally, the Philippines, in upholding the rules-based international order and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as guaranteed under international law. Bureau of East Asian and Pacific AffairsChinaOffice of the SpokespersonPhilippinesSeas
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-10-24): By the Song dynasty, China maintained that it was naming and claiming territory in the island chains it calls Nansha (the Spratly Islands) and Xisha (the Paracel Islands). [...] For example, in the UN’s archival end-notes: "On 12 June 1985, the Secretary-General received from the Government of China the following communication: ‘The so-called Kalayaan Islands are part of the Nansha [Spratly] Islands, which have always been Chinese territory. The Chinese government has stated on many occasions that China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and at the adjacent waters and resources.’" [...] In 2012, Beijing took control of Scarborough Shoal within the Philippines’ EEZ after a months-long standoff involving paramilitary ships.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2016-06-01): See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spratly_Islands_dispute for a statement of the dispute involving the Spratlys and the claims of different States involved and for a description of the Spratly islands and associated "maritime features" (reefs, banks, cays, etc.) located in the South China Sea. Only China (PRC), Taiwan (ROC), and Vietnam have made claims based on historical sovereignty of the islands. The Philippines, however, claims part of the area as its territory under the UNCLOS. For summary of the territorial claims of countries involved see www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/spratly-claims.htm. See also for a list of islands in the Spratly group and various incidents or claims or assertion of authority and control, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maritime_features_in_the_Spratly_Islands.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-11-11): China then claims a 12 nautical mile (nm) territorial sea from the Paracel baseline, not from the individual islands, and in the Spratlys from many features that under international law are not awarded this right, such as artificial islands. Moreover, China’s interpretation of the territorial sea is that the state has the exclusive right to make, apply and execute its own laws in that space without foreign interference. But according to UNCLOS, all ships, civilian or military, enjoy the right of innocent passage through other states’ territorial seas. Moreover, the contiguous zone is considered part of international waters, and states do not have the right to limit navigation or exercise any control for security purposes. [...] But undermining China’s false legal claims will take more than military operations and harsh statements. In 2016, the Hague Tribunal ruled that China’s claims of historic rights in the South China Sea lacked legal foundation, China’s actions in the region infringed on the rights of the Philippines, and features in the Spratlys are not entitled to EEZs or territorial zones. Yet Washington’s ongoing refusal itself to ratify UNCLOS undermines the general effectiveness of pushing back against Beijing with legal tools of statecraft. Additionally, Washington squandered an opportunity to support the Philippines in enforcing the international legal tribunal’s 2016 ruling in its favour, further reducing the attractiveness for other claimants to challenge Beijing on legal grounds.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-17): China’s sweeping claims of sovereignty over the sea—and the sea’s estimated 11 billion barrels of untapped oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—have antagonized competing claimants Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. As early as the 1970s, countries began to claim islands and various zones in the South China Sea, such as the Spratly Islands, which possess rich natural resources and fishing areas. The failure of Chinese and Southeast Asian leaders to resolve the disputes diplomatically could undermine international laws governing maritime disputes and encourage destabilizing arms buildups. [...] Upon assuming office in June 2022, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. rejected the conciliatory stance toward China adopted by his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. The Philippines’ most contentious disputes with China center on the Second Thomas Shoal of the Spratly Islands, which lies within the Philippines’ 200-mile EEZ. In 1999, the Philippines intentionally grounded a ship to reinforce its territorial claims to the area which it calls the West Philippine Sea. Since then, the Philippine Coast Guard has conducted monthly resupply missions to its military contingent on the ship, known as the BRP Sierra Madre. Chinese Coast Guard vessels began to employ dangerous tactics to harass Philippine resupply missions in 2023, leading to heightened clashes. Collisions have become increasingly common, and the Chinese Coast Guard has used a military-grade laser and repeatedly fired water cannons against Philippine ships. On June 17, a Chinese vessel and a Philippine supply ship collided near the Second Thomas Shoal; both sides blamed the other for the incident.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-08-15): In recent weeks, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has dispatched ships and other maritime forces to the disputed Spratly islands near the Philippines. The goal has been to coerce the Philippines into withdrawing from the contested Second Thomas Shoal, effectively ceding it to the PRC. China’s actions are in defiance of the international Permanent Court of Arbitration’s findings that undermine PRC claims to the Spratlys. They therefore constitute a serious challenge to the international rules governing maritime conduct, as well as to broader peace and stability in the South China Sea, through which enormous amounts of global trade flow. The Spratlys are a group of geographic features including reefs, shoals and rocks located near the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia — and several hundred miles from China’s shores. The area is claimed by the PRC, Taiwan (as the Republic of China), Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. [...] China is clearly intent upon coercing the Philippines out of its position in the Spratlys, regardless of the Philippines’ formal legal rights and claims. Indeed, it is quite likely that the PCA findings have only strengthened the PRC’s resolve to secure the Spratlys (as well as the separate Scarborough Shoal and Macclesfield Bank territories). At the same time, the PRC is likely trying to signal to the region that American support is both escalatory and counterproductive.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-29): Spratly Islands, large group of reefs, shoals, atolls, and small islets in the South China Sea of the Pacific Ocean. They are located north of insular Malaysia and are roughly midway between Vietnam and the Philippines, and they are claimed—wholly or in part—by several countries in the region. [...] By the late 20th century, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Malaysia (with its occupation of Turumbu Layang-Layang reef [June 1983]), and the Philippines all had conflicting claims to the Spratlys, supported (except, initially, in the case of China) by garrisons on various islands. Although Brunei did not claim any territory in the Spratlys, it did declare an EEZ that contained a Spratly reef. The United States, which has been the dominant presence in the Pacific region for most of the period since the early 20th century, has not recognized the claims of any country on the Spratlys, insisting instead that the Spratlys are in international waters.
Claim: Spratly Islands is a territory of Philippines (Spratly Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2015-12-15): China: Huayang Jiao, 华阳礁 Taiwan: Huayang Reef, 華陽礁 Vietnam: Bãi Châu Viên