On January 22, 2013, under the leadership of the then President Aquino III, the Philippine government gathered a group of anti-China people active in the international community and concocted a farce of the South China Sea arbitration.
Although this farce has become a mess, it has also made many Chinese people realize that it is not only Vietnam, but also other countries also covet our South China Sea islands and reefs.
In addition to Vietnam and Philippines , there is also a small country that has also participated in the South China Sea dispute. In 1988, it even occupied an island and reef belonging to our country - Nantong Reef .
It has been 34 years since Nantong Reef was occupied. This island and reef hanging from the mainland has not returned to the embrace of the motherland. This country that illegally invaded our legal territory is Brunei .
So the question is, how did Brunei invade our islands and reefs? What unknown stories are there behind this?
1 A small country is not peaceful
Brunei is a small country located on the north coast of Borneo, Southeast Asia. Its territory area is only 5,765 square kilometers and its total population is only 430,000.
Like most Southeast Asian countries, Brunei also experienced a colonial history before independence, but unlike other countries' independence through revolutionary means, Brunei's independence did not experience any bloody movement.
Although Brunei has not experienced the War of Independence, Brunei was not peaceful after the founding of the People's Republic of China. As a small country, Brunei has rich oil reserves.
Relying on its rich resources and developed tourism industry, Brunei has made a fortune and is one of the few wealthy small countries in Southeast Asia.
But as the saying goes, every man is guilty of being guilty of being a treasure. A small country with almost no defense ability can easily become the "meat on the mouth" of neighboring countries.
As a neighbor of Brunei, Malaysia can be said to be salivating about this land. Although in the current international situation, annexation of other countries can be said to be difficult to reach the sky.
But Malaysia has ulterior motives to take advantage of the historical problems left by British colonists at that time and plays a trick of border disputes with Brunei.
At that time, the main dispute between Brunei and Malaysia was on land, a narrow hoof-shaped seaside area located in the common jurisdiction of the two countries.
This area divides the land territory of Brunei into two parts that are not connected to each other. This is undoubtedly extremely unfavorable for Brunei, which is already small in size. After all, this seashore allows Brunei to be an enclave of each other, which is not only not conducive to the internal rule of the country, but also to national security.
So in order to give me a stable sleep every day, Brunei found a large amount of legal information from his library, trying to piece together evidence that could prove his territory, and brought the former sect leader Britain, hoping that the brother who helped him back then could come forward to solve the related problems.
A corner of Malaysia
However, everyone knows that the British people have always regarded themselves as messing around. In the face of the requirements put forward by Brunei, the British Empire did not comment at first, but turned around and found Malaysia and made the same promise.
In this way, the border dispute between Brunei and Malaysia has not only not been resolved with the intervention of the British, but has become increasingly complicated!
The British mixed together made Brunei realize that if you want to truly deal with the border issues, you have to rely on Brunei itself.
So, the two countries started a long dispute in the 1958 Act, and neither side was willing to make any concessions on territorial division, and the negotiations fell into an embarrassing deadlock.
In addition to dividing the coastal areas of Brunei, there are also considerable disputes over the sea area between Wen and Malaysia, and their respective opinions are also held on the ownership of islands and reefs.
Since Malaysia is independent first than Brunei, Malaysia has enough time to operate. So in the middle and late last century, Malaysia first crossed the colonial-era sea division and occupied some islands and reefs such as Nantong Reef.
Brunei
Brunei has always expressed that it has sovereignty over islands and reefs such as Nantong Reef, and hopes that the Malaysian authorities can abide by international law and return several illegally occupied islands and reefs as soon as possible.
However, the sea dispute between Malaysia and Brunei is not as simple as the dispute between the two countries, because Nantong Reef, the main battlefield of the dispute between the seas between the two countries, is actually China's territory. As early as the reign of King Xuan of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the famous minister Zhao Duke led a large army to pacify the Huaiyi, and his name resounded throughout the world. The countries of the South China Sea expressed their surrender to the Central Plains.
As time goes by, the Central Plains dynasty's exploration of the South China Sea is also deepening. In the 2 years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the failure of the border war put a huge burden on the Song court's finances. In order to meet the needs of "-year-old monies ", the Song Dynasty began to open up a new route dominated by maritime trade.
In " Wujing Zongyao " written by Zeng Gongliang , the islands and reefs in the South China Sea belong to the coastal areas of the Song Dynasty. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, the young emperor who fled to the sea Song Duanzong also lived on Xisha Islands for a period of time.
Zeng Gongliang
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty , although the authorities pursued a maritime ban policy, their jurisdiction over the South China Sea did not end there. After the siege of Zhu Di , in order to search for the whereabouts of the former emperor Zhu Yunwen , and to show the power of the Ming Dynasty, he ordered his confidant eunuch Zheng He to lead hundreds of thousands of troops to take more than a hundred large warships, cross the South China Sea route to West Africa.
At the same time, the Ming Dynasty government established sovereignty and jurisdiction over the South China Sea islands and sea areas through naval patrols. By the time of Chenghua , the entire South China Sea belonged to Wanzhou.
1644, the Jurchens entered Shanhaiguan with the help of Wu Sangui, the general of Liaodong . Then, the Manchus entered the Central Plains. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, China marked the Nansha Islands on an authoritative map, and began to clearly divide the South China Sea into four major archipelagos, and administratively govern the Nansha Islands.
From the above historical evolution, we can see that the South China Sea has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times.
Zheng He's voyage to the West
However, because the Qing Dynasty pursued a policy of closing the country, its development in the military field was far behind that of the great powers. Although after experiencing the Westernization Movement, the Qing government established several combat-ready naval forces.
However, the Westernization Ministers treated the navy as a tool for offshore defense and ignored the possibility of ocean-going operations, so they gave the great powers an opportunity to take advantage of it. France, Britain, Japan and other countries sent people to board some islands and reefs and planted their own national flags on it.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, China did not recover from the situation of poverty and weakness. Although the Chiang Kai-shek regime has never given up on the South China Sea, it lacks the warship. The Chinese mainland, in the midst of war, has no chance to defend its island, which has laid the foreshadowing for future disputes.
By the 1970s, the South Vietnamese government began to invade China's maritime borders, and China was in a special period at that time, so it did not have the energy to crush South Vietnam's aggression.
Lesun
After the unification of the two Vietnams in 1975, the Lesun group of North Vietnam inherited the territory of South Asia, which naturally also included the islands and reefs occupied by South Vietnam. Later, the Vietnamese side carried out landfill operations on islands and reefs, constantly eroding my country's waters.
The actions of the Vietnamese have set a model for Southeast Asian countries that covet the South China Sea. The Philippines and Malaysia have participated in illegal activities that have eroded my country's maritime borders using the excuse of safeguarding national security.
And Nantong Reef is occupied by Malaysia under such a special background.
2 Transaction
As China opens the door to reform and opening up , the economic level and comprehensive national strength have been continuously improved, sovereignty on the South China Sea issue has also been put on the agenda.
Although Malaysia has always pursued the so-called Malaysian policy, promoted the Islamization of secular society and carried out political and cultural oppression on Chinese people in its territory, in diplomacy, the Malaysian authorities are unwilling to step into the muddy waters of the South China Sea issue.
For Malaysia, Nantong Reef has little practical significance, but in order to consider the nationalists and anti-China sentiment in China, the Malaysian authorities will not easily deal with this island and reef correctly.
coincided with this time, Brunei was independent and stated that it had sovereignty over Nantong Reef, which gave Malaysia an opportunity to take advantage of. So the Malaysian authorities put forward the so-called ocean exchange for land, intending to use Nantong Reef as a bargaining chip to put other territorial disputes between Wen and Malaysia first.
Malaysian politician
Regarding Malaysia's proposal, the Brunei authorities realized that Malaysia has ulterior motives, but their current state is already on the verge of being on the string. If the transaction is refused, I am afraid that the solution to the border problem will be nowhere to be achieved, so Xuan has to choose to compromise.
The reason why Brunei chose to compromise is not only the huge differences between the two countries, but also has nothing to do with the actual situation in Brunei.
As a small country, Brunei has pursued a peaceful foreign policy since its independence. Its core goal is to maintain sovereignty and independence and promote economic development. Malaysia and Brunei have many cultural similarities. Brunei, which implements a monarchy, has always been worried that the territory will be annexed.
At first, Brunei wanted to handle diplomatic relations between the two countries through tougher means. However, as time went on, Brunei realized that distant friendship and near attacks were only applicable to big countries, and that small countries like themselves were just a dead end to play diplomatic strategies.
html In desperation, Brunei chose to maintain friendly relations with Malaysia. When neighboring countries took the lead in delivering an olive branch covered with poison, even if you don’t want to, you must take it first.
Brunei royal
Therefore, for Brunei, it is undoubtedly a wise move to resolve diplomatic disputes by peaceful means. So in 1988, Brunei and Malaysia reached a preliminary agreement and made significant progress in territorial transfer.
In the following time, Brunei has been negotiating with Malaysia to determine the last territorial border between the two sides. With the continuous changes in the international environment, Malaysia's official attitude has also changed, and they began to actively contact Brunei.
In the 2009 territorial plan of Brunei and Malaysia, Malaysian authorities put the joint offshore oil and gas mining zone into the negotiated projects.
On the one hand, this plan can be interpreted as Malaysia, as a major country, actively making more concessions at the level of interests. On the other hand, this plan can also be considered a strategy for both Wen and Malaysia to deal with our South China Sea propositions.
In the above article, we have mentioned that Nantong Reef belongs to Chinese territory, and the oil and gas mining area advocated by Wen and Malaysia is close to the 9-dash line divided by my country, and is in the historic waters advocated by our country.
In other words, this field belongs to the disputed area between Chinese and China and Malaysia and cannot be decided by Malaysia and Brunei without authorization. This is obviously an operation that violates international law.
Wen and Malaysia jointly exploit the disputed waters not only to seek more oil and gas resources, but also to form a joint force against China on the South China Sea issue, trying to counter my country's claims on the South China Sea in this moderate and low-key way, so as to maximize the interests of both sides.
WenMa and China can also have a certain confidence when facing the pressure exerted by our side, and try to set up obstacles for our country to resolve territorial disputes in the southeastern region within the "Nine-Dash Line" of the South China Sea and claim more resources and interests.
After long-term negotiations, Brunei and Malaysia finally reached a compromise plan to divide the disputed territory between the two countries. In this dispute, Brunei chose a strategic policy of exchanging land for oceans, and the two sides made concessions to a certain extent promoted the resolution of the incident.
It can be said that the solution to the problem between Wen and Malaysia has provided a sample for some international countries, and through concessions between the interests of both sides, a good condition can be reached and the problem can be resolved peacefully.
However, behind the resolution of territorial dispute between Wen and Malaysia, there are greater interest demands of both sides. By occupying our inherent territory, Nantong Reef, we can see that Brunei is not a harmless little transparent country. In the face of interests, they do not hesitate to use all means to stage a scene of shaking trees.
Under the instigation of Western forces and internal nationalist forces, the South China Sea issue, a problem that should have been resolved by bilateral negotiations, has gradually been magnified to international issues. Various farces surrounding the South China Sea region can be said to be emerging one after another. From trading Chinese territory to your South China Sea arbitration, all of them are comedy that makes people laugh.
As my country's comprehensive national strength continues to strengthen, the South China Sea issue has opened a new page. On September 25, 2012, the Liaoning aircraft carrier was officially delivered to the People's Liberation Army Navy, and the Chinese Navy officially took the first step towards the Blue Water Navy , which is operating from the ocean.
Immediately afterwards, the successive launch of the Shandong ship and the Fujian ship brought our naval strength to a new level. The strengthening of the navy means that our country has stronger ability to cruise the South China Sea region.
Conclusion:
As the saying goes, blacksmiths need to be strong himself. If we want to properly solve the South China Sea problem, a strong comprehensive national strength and naval fleet are the real backing, under the collective efforts of the Communist Party of China and the people.
Sooner or later, the so-called controversy in the South China Sea will disappear. The pearl located in South China will be completely embedded in China and will always stand in the long river of history.
References
Malaysia and Brunei’s South China Sea Propositions——Southeast Asia Overview
Editor: Li Keyong
Editor: zxt
