Into the South China Sea

We are sailing into the placid South China Sea. Progress is good at 20 knots as we proceed north to Vietnam.

However in politucal terms this sea is far from placid. It is a hotbed of territorial disputes between Chona and its neighbours. China claims that historically as far back as the thirteenth century, China had laid claim to the whole sea as its own teritorial waters. This includes the Spratly Islands which consists of tiny islands and reefs claimed not only by China, but also by the Philippines, which is geographically the nearest, by Vietnam, as well as Malaysia and Brunei. To Philippines its partly a matter of fishing rites, as well as possible claims to an oil and gas shelf. It has actually occupied a couple of islands with a military presence. The Chinese, although geogaphically the most distant, ahve built a permanent military base on one of the islands and are dredging around a number of others. Obsessed by the though that it is being strangled by a U.S. blockade China is determind to expand its claim and has a regular fleet of ships protecting its miitary base. There was an incident a couple of months ago where a Chinese patrol boat tried to blind a Filipino supply ship with laser light, which the the Philippines considered to be an act of aggression. There are also disputes over the coral reefs that constitute the  Paracel islands, which Vietnam considers to be historically part of its territorial waters. Last century it had been controlled by colonial France, a claim taken up by the successor state of South Viietnam. The Chinese claimed these islands in the same way as the Spratly Islands. North Vietnam, which was Communist and reliant on Chinese support in its war with USA and South Vietnam, recognized the Chinese claim. However once it had conquered the South and cast out the Americans, the Vietnamese assumed Vietnam's trafitional claim. In its current aggressive mode China is ready to push for total control of both these islands and of the whole sea area with military force and blackmail. It has already given Chinese names to each and every one of its hundreds or so  tiny islands and reefs. One other complication. Taiwan also extends ts claim to the whole sea, because as the Republic of China, it considers iteself the rightful inheritor of both islands. 

In the afternoon I went to two lectures about Vietnam in the Neptune Theatre. The first was on earlier contacts with Europeans, and particularly the Jesuit missions. Initially tolerated but later in the eighteenth century a new ruler allowed European missionaries to be killed on sight. The French administration arrived to protect Christians. The second lecture was on the thirty years’ war in Vietnam at the end of the Second World War. He described the struggle of liberation against the French administration and the serious defeat at Dien Ben Phu, and then the second stage of the war between North and South Vietnam, and finally the American involvement, leading to the USA’s first defeat in a war. A total of 2 million civilians died inat protracted war. It is a wonder that current relations between Communist Vietnam and the USA are currently so good, but now both of them face the common threat of People’s China.

I  noticed a lot of new faces on the essel both among the passengers and crew. These people had come on board at Singapore, and were now obviously trying to adjust to their new life on board. I noticed our maid who was in our new cabin has ledt now, and we have a new maid yet again who came on board yesterday,

Only Ranald and Helen to join me on the quiz tonight, so we did badly, just 8 out of 15.