Chinese Territorial Strife Hits Archaeology

China Has Begun Asserting Ownership of Thousands of Shipwrecks in the South China Sea

By Jeremy Page
 The Wall Street Journal

A boatman paddles away from the Sarangani, a ship on which archaeologists became embroiled in a standoff with China, in Manila Bay. Jeremy Page/The Wall Street Journal

Underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio’s team was exploring the wreckage of a 13th-century Chinese junk off the coast of the Philippines when it made an unwelcome discovery about China’s maritime muscle in the 21st century.

As a twin-prop plane swooped overhead, a Chinese marine-surveillance vessel approached the team’s Philippines-registered ship and began broadcasting instructions in English over a loudspeaker.

“They said this area belonged to the People’s Republic of China, and they told us to scram,” recalls one of the people on board last year. “It was pretty scary.” Chinese officials confirm the incident took place but say the archaeologists’ mission was illegal.

With territorial disputes escalating in the waters off China, the Chinese government has begun asserting ownership of thousands of shipwrecks within a vast U-shaped area that covers almost all of the South China Sea, which it says has been part of its territorial waters for centuries.

China has ordered its coast guard to prevent what it considers illegal archaeology in the waters it claims, and it is pouring money into a state-run marine-archaeology program. Chinese archaeologists are preparing their first comprehensive survey of undersea sites, including in disputed areas.

Chinese officials say their efforts will curb the theft and treasure hunting they say has destroyed numerous sites and flooded the global market with looted Chinese antiquities.

There is a political dimension to China’s plans. Chinese archaeologists openly aspire to bolster their country’s historical claims to the contested South China Sea, which overlap with those of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines.

“We want to find more evidence that can prove Chinese people went there and lived there, historical evidence that can help prove China is the sovereign owner of the South China Sea,” says Liu Shuguang, head of the Chinese government’s Center of Underwater Cultural Heritage, set up in 2009 to oversee underwater archaeology in the country.

Tensions have been running high in the region over China’s intensifying campaign to assert territorial claims, not only in the South China Sea, but in the East China Sea, which is contested by Japan. On Nov. 23, China proclaimed a new air-defense identification zone over islands claimed by both China and Japan but controlled by Tokyo [...]

Read the full story >> Chinese Territorial Strife Hits Archaeology