Re: Re: Philippines accuses China of aggressively violatin...

[Guest guest]

The little scraps of land are only important because of certain international laws. What is primarily important is the oil and gas underneath.

International laws provide definitions for national waters. I'm not sure the exact ranges but it is something like this.

Territorial waters, that is waters there laws of the nation can be enforced, go out about 3 to 5 miles from the coast. There is another band that goes to about 15 miles but I'm not sure the definition of that. There there is the economic zone which is supposed to be waters where the near country owns the resources within and that is something can range out to 200 miles, though it may be less.

So, what China and these other countries are trying to do is to claim little bits of land so they can use these ranges to control the oil and gas fields. China has taken reefs that are barely above water and high tide, thus making them officially "land" and brought in dirt and concrete to expand that are enough to put in an airfield or the like that is just barely about the waves. Still, that is enough to potentially lay claim to the surrounding resources. It could get crazy out there every easily.

In a message dated 6/7/2011 1:10:24 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

China could care less about the little scraps of land they are arguing over. They are just testing the resolve of the international community, ind of like what Hitler was doing with the Sudenten territories.Administrator