The stand-off at the Huangyan Island has lasted over 20 days, and the Chinese and Philippine vessels still remain in the disputed waters. Many people are wondering why China don’t take military action and solve the problem once and for all.

Huangyan Island was discovered and mapped as Chinese territory as early as the 13th century. It was only at the end of last century that the Philippines claimed the area as part of its 200-mile exclusive economic zone. But Manila acknowledged the Huangyan Island an integral part of Chinese territory even in its map in 1997.

The only basis Manila can provide is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. According to that convention, any nation is entitled to have 200-mile waters as its exclusive economic zone. However, the pre-condition is that you have to own that territory. You cannot say that the island is yours simply because it is within 200 miles. Looking at the map of Greece, you’ll see many islands are several hundreds of kilometers off the coast of Greece, but only dozens of kilometers away from another country of Turkey. However, due to historic reasons, they belong to Greece. There’s no such thing in the world as the island has to be mine because it is close to me.

With that said, we may wonder why the Philippines has the guts to cause the confrontation against China? The Philippines is just monkeying around. The whole thing is a mere farce. Don’t forget the fact that the Philippines is one of the poorest and weakest countries on earth, either in terms of economic or military strengths. Is it because they believe the United States will give them military support? Is it because the Philippine politicians want to divert its people’s attention? Is it because they believe we’ll not fight back as we’re busy developing our economy?

We can’t help but ask why China, such a big country, cannot fully safeguard her islands. The biggest problem we’re facing, as I see it, is not whether we will win the battle if it does happen or whether the US will intervene in the dispute, but how we can maintain the effective control of these islands or coral reefs, especially the ones in Nansha Islands. It is very hard to exploit the oil or gas under the sea, being so far away. The question is: Can we only orally protest and watch other countries taking our islands and natural resources such as petroleum and natural gas?