can, in the words of UNCLOS, ‘sustain human habitation or economic life of their own’. This is why all three go to such great lengths to develop civilian facilities wherever they can: houses and schools are clearly forms of human habitation and fishing depots and tourism plans are forms of economic life. All the children learning their multiplication tables on Thitu/Pagasa, and all the monks chanting their prayers on Spratly/Truong Sa Lon are, in their own small ways, helping to stake their country's maritime claims.
There are no children learning anything on the Scarborough Shoal but in April 2007 a group of grown men spent a week playing on it. They were amateur radio enthusiasts – ‘DXers’ – who compete to broadcast from the most extreme locations. They set off from Hong Kong on a chartered boat carrying all they would need: radio equipment and antennae of course – but also planks, sheets of wood, generators, umbrellas and life jackets. This was the fourth DXpedition to the Shoal since 1994 so the hams knew roughly what to expect. But when they arrived, they found almost nothing there. At high tide, just six rocks protrude above the sea: none more than two metres high and, at most, only three or four metres across. They set to work. In order to qualify for DX status, the transmissions had to take place on the rocks themselves but there wasn't a flat surface anywhere.Using planks, they managed to construct a small platform on each one – just big enough for a table and chair, a generator, a radio and an umbrella. Working in shifts they then broadcast to fellow DXers around the world for five days.
To outsiders it may seem a bizarre and incomprehensible way to spend a holiday but the trip was the fruit of a long and emotionally charged battle with echoes of the geopolitical disputes in the South China Sea. There had been long arguments within the DX community about whether Scarborough Shoal qualified for ‘new country status’ – a marque that would unlock a flood of support from hobbyists keen to add another notch to their radio reception bedposts. In June 1995, a committee of the American Radio Relay League had tried to impose a minimum size rule for islands in order to disqualify Scarborough from consideration. It echoed the wording of UNCLOS, declaring that ‘rocks which cannot sustain human habitation shall not be considered for DXCC country status’. However, the DX adventurers and their supporters lobbied to get the decision overturned – and seven months later they were successful. But, as the DXpeditioners conclusively proved, Scarborough Shoal is completely incapable of supporting human habitation. Even with timber, generators and umbrellas it was utterly inhospitable for more than a few hours at a time. There is a specific rule for this kind of feature in UNCLOS: it is a ‘rock’, so it generates a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, but no EEZ or continental shelf whatsoever.
None of this deterred China's maritime authorities from expending an extraordinary amount of effort to wrest control of Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines during 2012. A standoff began on 10 April when Philippine coastguards tried to prevent eight Chinese fishing boats making off with a great hoard of coral, giant clams and even live sharks. Two large China Marine Surveillance ships then arrived to prevent the fishermen being arrested. The Philippines sent its biggest warship, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar (a former US Coastguard cutter built in 1965), before rethinking the decision and replacing it with coastguard ships. With a typhoon approaching, both governments agreed to withdraw their vessels – but only the Filipinos did so, leaving the Chinese in physical control of the shoal.
There is one other kind of feature that appears in Chinese territorial claims to the South China Sea but is conspicuously absent from thetext of UNCLOS: the underwater feature. Under UNCLOS there are no grounds at all for any state to
There are no children learning anything on the Scarborough Shoal but in April 2007 a group of grown men spent a week playing on it. They were amateur radio enthusiasts – ‘DXers’ – who compete to broadcast from the most extreme locations. They set off from Hong Kong on a chartered boat carrying all they would need: radio equipment and antennae of course – but also planks, sheets of wood, generators, umbrellas and life jackets. This was the fourth DXpedition to the Shoal since 1994 so the hams knew roughly what to expect. But when they arrived, they found almost nothing there. At high tide, just six rocks protrude above the sea: none more than two metres high and, at most, only three or four metres across. They set to work. In order to qualify for DX status, the transmissions had to take place on the rocks themselves but there wasn't a flat surface anywhere.Using planks, they managed to construct a small platform on each one – just big enough for a table and chair, a generator, a radio and an umbrella. Working in shifts they then broadcast to fellow DXers around the world for five days.
To outsiders it may seem a bizarre and incomprehensible way to spend a holiday but the trip was the fruit of a long and emotionally charged battle with echoes of the geopolitical disputes in the South China Sea. There had been long arguments within the DX community about whether Scarborough Shoal qualified for ‘new country status’ – a marque that would unlock a flood of support from hobbyists keen to add another notch to their radio reception bedposts. In June 1995, a committee of the American Radio Relay League had tried to impose a minimum size rule for islands in order to disqualify Scarborough from consideration. It echoed the wording of UNCLOS, declaring that ‘rocks which cannot sustain human habitation shall not be considered for DXCC country status’. However, the DX adventurers and their supporters lobbied to get the decision overturned – and seven months later they were successful. But, as the DXpeditioners conclusively proved, Scarborough Shoal is completely incapable of supporting human habitation. Even with timber, generators and umbrellas it was utterly inhospitable for more than a few hours at a time. There is a specific rule for this kind of feature in UNCLOS: it is a ‘rock’, so it generates a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, but no EEZ or continental shelf whatsoever.
None of this deterred China's maritime authorities from expending an extraordinary amount of effort to wrest control of Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines during 2012. A standoff began on 10 April when Philippine coastguards tried to prevent eight Chinese fishing boats making off with a great hoard of coral, giant clams and even live sharks. Two large China Marine Surveillance ships then arrived to prevent the fishermen being arrested. The Philippines sent its biggest warship, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar (a former US Coastguard cutter built in 1965), before rethinking the decision and replacing it with coastguard ships. With a typhoon approaching, both governments agreed to withdraw their vessels – but only the Filipinos did so, leaving the Chinese in physical control of the shoal.
There is one other kind of feature that appears in Chinese territorial claims to the South China Sea but is conspicuously absent from thetext of UNCLOS: the underwater feature. Under UNCLOS there are no grounds at all for any state to
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