Book review: The South China Sea - The Struggle for Power in Asia, by Bill Hayton

The South China Sea – The Struggle for Power in Asia
by Bill Hayton
Yale University Press

Disputes over the South China Sea can seem as unfathomable as the storm-swept waters that batter its contested cluster of tiny islands, uninhabitable rocks and semi-submerged reefs.

Bill Hayton's superb and timely book, The South China Sea - The Struggle for Power in Asia, brings much-needed clarity to an issue that poses a threat to the region, if not the world. A BBC journalist and Southeast Asia specialist, Hayton makes full use of his trade-craft to spin a page-turning thriller packed with anecdotes, historical characters and eye-witness accounts.

Few of the actors emerge unscathed: the US is a domineering hegemonist, the Philippines bumbling and inept, while Vietnam's regime is plagued by many of the same issues as China's.

China's extensive claims are perhaps best known: a sweeping line formed from nine dashes that gobbles up a vast swathe of the South China Sea and encroaches on the territorial waters of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Beijing's bullying of its smaller neighbours over the issue is also well known.

Less familiar, perhaps, are the historical roots for China's claim - or lack thereof. Hayton shows how the South China Sea was largely unknown - or uncharted - by the Chinese until recent times. Once Chinese nationalists determined to assert ownership little more than a century ago, they borrowed names from European charts, rather than using ones that might be expected from an empire with historical claims on the area.

Take James Shoal, called Zengmu Tan by the Chinese: this southernmost territory claimed by China lies about 22 metres below the sea - but there is no basis for a territorial claim on a submerged feature under international law. Indeed, as Hayton shows, the majority of the land features in the area wouldn't generate much of a claim to the surrounding sea were the disputes put to international arbitration. Which explains why China refuses to submit to outside adjudication of its claims.