copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-07-14): - The PRC cannot lawfully assert a maritime claim - including any Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims derived from Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands - vis-a-vis the Philippines in areas that the Tribunal found to be in the Philippines' EEZ or on its continental shelf. Beijing'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 Tribunal'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 Philippines' sovereign rights and jurisdiction, nor does Beijing have any territorial or maritime claims generated from these features. [...] - The PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to (or derived from) James Shoal, an entirely submerged feature only 50 nautical miles from Malaysia and some 1,000 nautical miles from China's coast. James Shoal is often cited in PRC propaganda as the "southernmost territory of China." International law is clear: An underwater feature like James Shoal cannot be claimed by any state and is incapable of generating maritime zones. James Shoal (roughly 20 meters below the surface) is not and never was PRC territory, nor can Beijing assert any lawful maritime rights from it.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-08-18): Pompeo’s announcement deviated from 25 years of US neutrality over three key issues. First, the US now argues that Mischief Reef and the Second Thomas Shoal, located 130 nautical miles and 105 nautical miles west of the Philippine Palawan Island respectively, are not Chinese but Philippine territories. Second, the announcement amounted to a declaration that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to James Shoal. Although the Chinese government claims James Shoal as its southernmost territory, it is an entirely submerged feature, 50 nautical miles from Malaysia and 1,000 nautical miles from China’s coast. Under international law, underwater features cannot be claimed by any state. So the US declared that James Shoal "is not and never was PRC territory". [...] The strengthening of the US position on the South China Sea signals an effort to build a coalition of allies and partners to counter and – in Esper’s words "openly compete" with – China. In more substantial terms, the US may be considering deeper defence support to regional states such as the Philippines and Malaysia, which has effectively managed James Shoal, to confront Chinese encroachment there.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2015-08-13): Research by a Canadian postgraduate researcher, Chris Chung, has shed new light on what happened.[13] In 1946 the RoC Ministry of the Interior commissioned a ‘Location Sketch Map of the South China Sea Islands’ (Nanhai Zhudao Weizhi Lüetu南海諸島位置略圖). The resulting map included an 8-dash line stretching around the Sea and as far south as the James Shoal, just off the coast of Borneo. At this time, it appears the RoC believed the shoal was an island. In 1935 an RoC committee had translated its name as Zeng-mu (the transliteration of James) ‘Tan’ – where Tan means a sandbank. It was only in December 1947 that the cartographers realized their mistake and borrowed the literary word ‘Ansha’ to use as an equivalent to ‘shoal’. The line the cartographer drew, incorporating this non-existent island and vast areas of sea, remains with us to this day. I have argued elsewhere that the shape of the line is a legacy of a series of ‘maps of national humiliation’ drawn by Chinese nationalists in the first half of the twentieth century.[14] As such it owes more to those nationalists’ misunderstandings about Southeast Asian history than it does to any real assertion of historic Chinese sovereignty. It’s a mistake now being forced upon the region with ideological rigour. [...] China’s Historical Claim in the South China Sea.MA Thesis, Departent of History, University of Calgary, Alberta. September, 2013 [14] Bill Hayton, China’s false memory syndrome. ProspectMagazine.co.uk 10 July 2014.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 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. [...] The PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to (or derived from) James Shoal, an entirely submerged feature only 50 nautical miles from Malaysia and some 1,000 nautical miles from Chinaâs coast. James Shoal is often cited in PRC propaganda as the âsouthernmost territory of China.â International law is clear: An underwater feature likeÂ James Shoal cannot be claimed by any state and is incapable of generating maritime zones. James Shoal (roughly 20 meters below the surface) is not and never was PRC territory, nor can Beijing assert any lawful maritime rights from it.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2014-08-26): James Shoal is a small bank in the South China Sea, lying under the water at a depth of 22 meters (72 feet). It is located about 80 km (50 mi) from the Malaysian coast and about 1,800 km from the Chinese mainland. Both the PRC and ROC officially claim the shoal as the southernmost feature of China. Malaysia also claims the shoal. As the bank is under the water, there is no way to erect a sovereignty stele. On April 20, 2010, however, the Chinese Marine Surveillance Ship-83 came to the water around the shoal. Several officers of the ship threw a sovereignty stele into the water. The stele is a big and heavy marble engraving with the Chinese characters Zhongguo (China). Another report from 2013 tells the story of Chinese naval officers and soldiers participating in an oath-taking ceremony on waters off Zengmu Ansha, pledging to safeguard China’s territorial integrity and marine interests.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2018-05-16): JB: Well, actually both of them are a bit tricky and as typically happens, the treaty doesn’t give you a lengthy piece of guidance on how to do that. And many nations including the United States have, I’ll use the phrase, been liberal in their interpretation whether a feature is an island, for the reasons you described. But in the last year, last summer, an international tribunal on the South Seas, which adds South China Sea in particular, which we’ll talk about, looked at that question and provided some more detailed interpretation and it said a few things. [...] The international tribunal decision at the permanent court of arbitration in 2016 that I mentioned earlier, really arose out of that and some other related disputes, but the principal core was with respect to China’s view of its rights over the South China Sea. China has asserted that it has broad sovereign rights within an area defined by the so-called 9-dash line, and that expression comes from the fact that the map that originally included it had nine dashes, the number of dashes varies from time to time, that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the line embraces the great majority of the South China Sea. It comes down close to Indonesia, Vietnam and to the Philippines. And the line conflicts with the Exclusive Economic Zones of those nations.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-26): Congressional Research Service 92 fisheries and offshore energy development within those areas is unlawful, as are any unilateral PRC actions to exploit those resources. In line with the Tribunal’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 Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction, nor does Beijing have any territorial or maritime claims generated from these features. [...] • The PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to (or derived from) James Shoal, an entirely submerged feature only 50 nautical miles from Malaysia and some 1,000 nautical miles from China’s coast. James Shoal is often cited in PRC propaganda as the "southernmost territory of China." International law is clear: An underwater feature like James Shoal cannot be claimed by any state and is incapable of generating maritime zones. James Shoal (roughly 20 meters below the surface) is not and never was PRC territory, nor can Beijing assert any lawful maritime rights from it. [...] As reflected in an international tribunal’s legally binding decision issued in July 2016, the People’s Republic of China has no lawful maritime claims to Second Thomas Shoal. The United States reiterates, pursuant to the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, the 2016 arbitral decision is final and legally binding on the PRC and the Philippines, and we call upon the PRC to abide by the ruling.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2016-07-19): For decades, Chinese schoolchildren have been taught that their homeland’s furthest southern reach was the underwater James Shoal (known in Chinese as Zengmu, a transliteration of "James"), which is located around 50 miles off the coast of Malaysia. Waters around the shoal are home to Malaysian oil and gas platforms. This geography lesson notwithstanding, Chinese maps gave scant attention to the South China Sea. That began to change after 2009, when a map with the nine-dash line was attached in a submission to the U.N. during a dispute with Vietnam. Today, Chinese passports are emblazoned with a map with nine dashes through the South China Sea—plus a 10th that ensures Taiwan, to which the Nationalists retreated in 1949, is counted as Chinese territory.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-03-08): The PRC cannot lawfully assert a maritime claim – including any Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims derived from Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands – vis-a-vis the Philippines in areas that the Tribunal found to be in the Philippines’ EEZ or on its continental shelf. Beijing’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 Tribunal’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 Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction, nor does Beijing have any territorial or maritime claims generated from these features. [...] The PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to (or derived from) James Shoal, an entirely submerged feature only 50 nautical miles from Malaysia and some 1,000 nautical miles from China’s coast. James Shoal is often cited in PRC propaganda as the "southernmost territory of China." International law is clear: An underwater feature like James Shoal cannot be claimed by any state and is incapable of generating maritime zones. James Shoal (roughly 20 meters below the surface) is not and never was PRC territory, nor can Beijing assert any lawful maritime rights from it.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2013-02-09): Where is the "southernmost point of Chinese territory"? It's a controversial question and the least controversial answer might be Hainan Island . More controversial options would be the Paracel (Xisha) islands or the Spratlys (Nansha). But officially the southernmost point is even further south - as far south as the James Shoal, about 100 kilometres from the coast of Borneo. What's more surprising is that this piece of the motherland is actually invisible. There's nothing there to see, unless you have diving equipment. The James Shoal lies 22 metres below sea. Yet this inconvenience doesn't prevent PLA Navy ships visiting the shoal from time to time to demonstrate Chinese sovereignty over it. This ritual involves heaving a large piece of engraved stone over the side of the ship. There is now a small collection of Chinese stelae gathering organic encrustations on the sea floor, more than 1,000 kilometres from Hainan. [...] But how to translate "shoal"? It's a nautical word meaning an area of shallow sea where waves "shoal" up. Sailors would see a strange area of choppy water in the middle of the ocean and know the area was shallow and therefore dangerous. James Shoal is one of many similar features in the Spratlys.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-03-14): The so-called nine-, ten-, but also eleven-dash lines indicate the area that China considers it has sovereignty over. In 2009, the Chinese government circulated a nine-dash map through a set of notes verbales to the United Nations, taking inspiration from an eleven-dash line map published by the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China in 1947. This map, in turn, was seen to follow a map published by the Republic of China’s Land and Water Maps Inspection Committee in 1935. In these maps, the geographical extent of the area claimed by Beijing includes the islands, banks and shoals as well as the surrounding waters of the Paracels, the Spratlys, Scarborough Shoal and Macclesfield Bank, and the Pratas – known in China as the Xisha, Nansha, Zongsha and Dongsha archipelagos respectively – all the way down to James Shoal – also known as Zengmu Ansha reef – as its southernmost tip, 1,800 miles away from mainland China. [...] Scarborough Shoal is a disputed territory claimed by China, Taiwan and the Philippines. Since the 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff, access to the shoal has been restricted by China. Scarborough Shoal forms a triangle-shaped chain of reefs and rocks with a perimeter of 46 km. It covers an area, including an inner lagoon, of 150 km2. The shoal’s highest point, South Rock, measures 1.8 m above water during high tide.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-10-22): READ MORE: 2 Philippine supply boats breach Chinese coast guard blockade in hotly contested South China Sea China’s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea, including over islands closer to Philippine shore, have raised tensions and brought in the United States, a longtime treaty ally of the Philippines, into the fray. The U.S. ambassador to Manila, MaryKay Carlson, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that "the United States condemns the PRC’s latest disruption of a legal Philippine resupply mission to Ayungin shoal, putting the lives of Filipino service members at risk." She used the initials for China’s formal name, the People’s Republic of China, and the name the Philippines uses for Second Thomas Shoal. She added that Washington was standing with its allies to help protect Philippine sovereignty and to support a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The Chinese coast guard said the Philippine vessels "trespassed" into what it said were Chinese waters "without authorization" despite repeated radio warnings, prompting its ships to stop them. It blamed the Philippine vessels for causing the collisions.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-12-01): This is a timely and important discussion. In recent months, while the world has focused on the fight against COVID-19, the Peopleâs Republic of China (PRC) has doubled-down on its campaign to impose an order of âmight makes rightâ in the South China Sea. Beijing is working to undermine the sovereign rights of other coastal states and deny them access to offshore resources â resources that belong to those states, not to China. Beijing wants dominion for itself. It wants to replace international law with rule by threats and coercion. [...] Third, the PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to James Shoal, off Malaysia. This one deserves a moment of study. James Shoal is a submerged feature on the sea floor some 20 meters beneath the surface. It is also only 50 nautical miles from Malaysia â and over 1,000 nautical miles from the Chinese mainland. Yet Beijing claims it as the âsouthernmost point of Chinaâ! The claim is absurd â appearing to derive from an erroneous old British atlas and a subsequent translation error, suggesting the underwater shoal was actually a sandbank above the waves. But it isnât. And yet Beijingâs propaganda touts James Shoal as PRC territory and PLA Navy ships deploy there to stage ostentatious oath-swearing ceremonies. International law is clear: An underwater feature gives no rights. James Shoal is not and never was Chinese territory, nor can Beijing assert any lawful maritime rights from such spurious claims.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-10-22): The PRC’s maritime claims in the South China Sea have no basis in international law. Some even lack any basis in reality, such as its absurd insistence that James Shoal is the southernmost tip of China. James Shoal, which is more than 1,000 miles from China, is fewer than 50 miles from Malaysia—and 70 feet underwater, so it isn’t territory at all. Beijing’s sovereignty claim appears to derive from an old British atlas and a translation error suggesting the underwater shoal was actually a sandbank above the waves. It isn’t – yet Beijing continues pushing maritime misinformation. [...] Southeast Asian Leaders issued a strong statement at the June 26 ASEAN Summit that South China Sea disputes must be resolved in line with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The message was timely, given the July 12 anniversary of the powerful 2016 ruling by the South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal which rejected Beijing’s maritime claim as a violation of international law. The PRC, as party to UNCLOS, was obligated to comply, but instead dismissed the ruling as a "scrap of paper." Beijing meanwhile put advanced missiles and aircraft on contested outposts in the Spratlys, in clear violation of Xi Jinping’s 2015 pledge to a White House press conference not to militarize these features.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2015-06-16): Luconia Breakers (Hempasan Bantin / 琼台礁) is just over 100km north of James Shoal, the shallow patch of ocean that Chinese people are routinely taught is the southernmost point of their country’s "territory," despite it being several metres underwater. As this post will show, unlike James Shoal, the territory at Luconia Breakers actually exists above the waterline. This is significant because if the PRC ever needs to clarify the nature of its maritime claims under international law, it could end up adopting the "new" feature as its southernmost territory. [...] Most importantly, Qiongtai Reef may be China’s southern extremity — the southernmost point that has dry land. Unless an ice age comes [making] James Shoal protrude above the water…at present, Qiongtai Reef is probably the southern extremity of China’s land 中国陆地的最南端.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2016-06-01): The dotted line encloses the main island features of the South China Sea: the Pratas Islands, the Paracel Islands, the Macclesfield Bank, and the Spratly Islands. The dotted line also captures James Shoal which is as far south as 4 degrees north latitude. On its significance, it is noted in an essay that, [...] It is noted that "Chinese activities in the South China Sea dates back 2000 years ago". Further, "China was the first country to discover, name, explore and exploit the resources of the South China Sea Islands and the first to continuously exercise sovereign powers over them". Following the end of World War II, stating that China actively resumed its activities over the area and by 1948, after conducting necessary surveys and renaming the islands, it was able to publish "an official map which displayed a dotted line in the South China Sea". The People's Republic of China, founded on 1 October 1949, maintained sovereignty of China over the South China Sea and officially pronounced as part of its 1958 Declaration on the Territorial Sea and 1992 Law of the People's Republic of China on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone that "the territory of People's Republic of China includes, among others, the Dongsha islands, the Xisha islands, the Zhongsha islands, and the Nansha islands". See the Position Paper of the People's Republic of China, http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1217147.shtml, para.4.
Claim: James Shoal is a territory of People's Republic of China (James Shoal, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-07-21): Every Chinese student learns the name "James Shoal," or Zengmu Ansha, a small bank in the South China Sea, lying 72 feet below water. China officially claims the shoal as the southernmost feature of its territory, although Malaysia also claims it, under the UN Convention on the Continental Shelf. [...] "Where is the southernmost point of China’s territory?" is an often-asked question in high school examinations, explains Guan Siqi, 23, who works for an environmental NGO in Beijing. "At first you would wonder what the heck James Shoal was," Guan said. She said the nearness of other islands and countries to the nine-dash line made her wonder as a kid if China was being a bit of a bully, but it wasn’t until she read news about the territory the she learned it was actually disputed. [...] After this week’s court ruling, young Chinese say their belief that China’s territory extends to James Shoal is firmer than ever. No matter how the South China Sea issue plays out, Lin, the student in Australia, said, "I will stand by China."
Claim: Macclesfield Bank is a territory of Philippines (Macclesfield Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-22): Macclesfield Bank is an elongated sunken atoll of underwater reefs and shoals in the South China Sea. It lies east of the Paracel Islands, southwest of Pratas Island and north of the Spratly Islands. It is about 130 km (81 mi) long from southwest to northeast, and about 70 km (43 mi) wide at its broadest part. [3] With an ocean area of 6,448 km2 (2,490 sq mi) it is one of the largest atolls in the world.[4] The Macclesfield Bank is part of what China calls the Zhongsha Islands, which includes a number of geographically separate submarine features, and also refers to a county-level administrative division. [...] Territorial claims [edit]Macclesfield Bank is claimed, in whole or in part, by China[16] and Taiwan (Republic of China).[17][18] Jose Zaide, a Filipino diplomat of ambassadorial rank, has written that the Philippines does not claim the Macclesfield Bank.[19] Moreover, Macclesfield Bank is not within UNCLOS 200 or Philippines EEZ.[20]