The Six-Country Fight Over These Tiny, Terrible Islands 

As a Filipino, we are willing to share the spratlys to everyone who has a claim on it except China.

I have actually recently been wondering what was happening in that conflict right now, because I had looked into it a few years back. It's sad but also unsurprising to hear that nothing really has changed and the situation only keeps getting tenser.

You forgot to mention that Filipino fishermen already fish at Scarborough Shoal during the Spanish colonial period. The Murillo Velarde map of 1734 documents this with the name Panatag Shoal, which is what Filipinos call Scarborough at the time.

Everyone gangster until Mongolia reclaims their old lines on the map...

These are The new balkans, to partially use a quote from Bismarck, „some damn foolish thing in the South China Sea will set of a war“ Edit: wow, this really blow up in Popularity

You just need 1 loony leader in one of those countries for this to turn into a beach episode of ukraine

Tom Clancy wrote a book about a conflict between China and the US stemming from competition over the Spratlys over 20 years ago. It's crazy to see what I hoped would be a work of fiction, slowly being made real.

I'm a Filipino so I hear about the news regularly. While I hate what's going on, my sad hope is that it just goes on forever. At least never escalate

As a Malaysian I'm so happy you're doing this topic

China: "Why do people hate us?" also China: "All your islands are ours!"

There was no year 0. The Gregorian Calendar goes from 1BC->1AD.

The next global season of Jetleg is gonna be super hard with Sam banned from all these countries

Glad to know we’re destroying coral reefs so we can…overfish?

The thing is that even if it is the same body of water referred to in those ancient texts, it genuinely does not matter. That's not how we settle claims because every place on the planet has about a dozen people who could make such a claim about it. Or does China think that Mongolia should be allowed to take over most of its territory?

lets see how Sam brings planes into this video. wait wrong channel

Just another problem that an epic game of Paper, Rock, Scissors could solve.

Fun fact. With a Western Imperialist perspective, the *French* were the first to lay a sovereign claim to anything in the South China Sea. And they did so in 1933, where French Captain Georges Meesemaecker and his small flotilla would lay French Empirical claim to nine small rocks, all done with trumpets, a flag, and a letter in a bottle outlining the claim. The UK can't do this, despite the fact that they were there 99 years earlier and named the Spratly Islands. They saw, they named, but they never claimed:)

Here's one cool detail, the name of the historical document China referenced for its claim - Yiwu Zhi 異物誌 literally means "archive of the strange and foreign things" as in things that are strange and foreign to China. So that means the reefs are .... get this... not Chinese.😂

I'm surprised that Great Britain isn't partly responsible for this

Surprisly, I saw no mentions or references to PAG-ASA ISLAND in this video. Implying that the only stake of the Philippines in the area is just a grounded landing vessel. Maybe I just missed it.

The Philippines and Vietnam in fact signed a strategic agreement at Hanoi in January 2024 on security cooperation and to take a common position regarding the South China Sea. These two countries are the main opponents against China's ambition in the SCS region.

It’s like claiming land according to the bible😂

China's historical claim to the south china sea is the same level of ridiculous as Italy claiming sovereignty over Egypt because it used to be part of Rome, or the UK claiming to control the US because they sent the original colonists there, or Taiwan claiming to be the sole ruler of mainland China because they used to govern it, or Norway claiming Canada because the Vikings stopped by there for a bit once upon a time. "Our sailors once passed by here 2000 years ago" is not a basis for a claim. It wasn't even a basis for a claim 2000 years ago. A claim to a place requires a permanent physical presence. A claim can also be usurped by another by physically kicking the first out. Essentially, the king of the hill is the one standing on it. The record of who used to stand on it means nothing. It's brutal playground bullshit, but that's the reality of international sovereignty, it only exists as far as you're willing to push the other guy off your hill. China's real best claim to the islands there is that they have set up permanent bases there and nobody has kicked them out yet.

I appreciate the use of motion blur in the graphics... which as simply stellar. I appreciate the time and effort that goes into these videos.

The fact that everyone in that region fears what China is doing and might do with the South China Sea tells you a lot about China's claims & actions. Taiwan & Japan have arguments over islands & waters but they don't fear the other side will launch some sort of war over it. But CHINA....they are showing intent to actually use force to take it all. And their claims are massive areas. Sure Taiwan, also has similar claims but it's mostly just to keep the Chinese claims and prevent China from just easiliy taking all the waters & islands.

Indonesia also has started to get pulled in this mess due to the fact that despite the Natuna Islands being universally recognized as Indonesian territory & far from the ultra-disputed coral islands, China (and technically also Taiwan's)South China Sea lines touched and even overlapped Indonesia's (again universally recognized) EEZ at their farthest reaches, which caused tensions between Indonesia and Chinese coast guards.

The whole video is great, but the best part is the amazing visual of the nation's maps projected on top of their land. Amazing work as always.

IMHO South China Sea is the pre-WWI Balkans of this century...

Bolivia should have them

As a vietnamese , we claim this island is our but everyone does so basiclly it like some sort of international water which no one want to militarize ,fishmen from all around come and sometime got caught by some others navy , but when china come and massively build naval base and naval partice , that enrage us

China in 50 years when the spratly islands have disappeared due to sea levels risisng: 😡😡😡

Front Mission 3 introduced me to the crazy politics of this region.

Last week was boeing and Now the hottest geopolitical drama...Protect this man at all costs. Can't believe all this drama is essentially over Fish.

Indonesia also have a territory in Natuna Island which is also claimed by China, so technically there are 7 countries involved in this dispute Edit: guys stop fighting in the replies lol.

I like the detail that when the Chinese claim is outlined in the video, it's always done with a 9-dashed line. Even when it's animated.

I love Wendover videos

FYI: Chinese spelling is not pronounced like French spelling. The Hainan capital of Haikou is pronounced like "hai-koh", not like "haiku".

Is it ever pragmatic to worry? I'd have thought it's pragmatic to *address* that worry -- making that last line doubly unfortunate for its location in the video. Reminds me a little bit of the first CONNECTIONS series by James Burke, a sweeping history-of-science project with draconian overtones about dystopian futures, in which Burke effectively concluded the whole thing by saying, "So what should you do? I don't know." Thanks ever so much, James.

I learned about these islands a couple decades ago, and the countries claiming them. It was nice to see e video dedicated to it.

Lines on map. Make my day. In all seriousness though, this is very fascinating to see how each nation decided to claim parts of the South China Sea. It really helped me to understand maybe just a little how this is such a touchy and delicate subject, effecting all nations in the South China Sea.

Jet Lag claiming obscure islands and atolls in South China Sea would be dope

4:40 Did you just say coral? 6-2-1, you have have a new job...

Outstanding music this episode

Another banger my friend

That old US landing ship is pretty sad looking. Throw a new coat of paint on it or something.

I think this guy and the guy from HAI would get along quite well

Year 2124: China claims Hawaii as its territory as per the historical records of the Ching dynasty

I saw "fight" as "flight" and thought it was odd HAI wasn't the one doing whatever this particular odd quirk in airline transportation would be lol

I don't know why China wouldn't want to seek a compromise as the biggest regional power. It could agree to having the waters be held by nobody to allow safe passage and free trade, and negotiate partnerships or division of resource exploitation rights. Everybody could get something out of this, and stop wasting their time and resources over a bunch of useless islands and non-islands, along with being able to avoid potentially getting dragged into a war with the US over these dumb islands in particular. It just looks like pride to me, and pride cometh before the fall.

Philippines is not a small country, they rank 74th, almost same size as Italy and bigger than New Zealand and UK and they have like 115 million people.

It doesn't matter what is right and wrong it's how much military power you have and what you can force to happen.

And of course wendover starts with aircraft info

geopolitics is a hell of a confusing drug

The name 'Taiping island' makes me nervous...

The amount of coral reef destroyed is astounding

well, starting off with a boeing flight is already .... super dangerous

Somewhat lacking. No mention of the efforts at multilateral resolution of disputes via the efforts are forging a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea, and the power dynamics that have hampered those efforts. Also it doesn't explain how the ASEAN claimants have been cordial with one another on the matter for years.

Great video, should be shown in the biggest screen in Bamban Tarlac in 4K

This is like a footnote or behind the scenes Video for the MapMen Episode to explain more Details.

The important note is, Taiwan is siding with China in this Spratly island dispute. They consider the nine dash line as theirs. Also, there is southern island of Natuna that China wants to dispute with Indonesia. But Indonesia refuse to negotiate or talk about it at all. since opening any negotiation meaning that the nine dash claim as true.

I don't even have to watch it to know, that oil reserves are in the area

China claims James Shoal to be the southern most point of their territory, which it’s not even above the sea level. I am not sure how they manage to push this down to every Chinese national’s throat. Gonna be some next level mental gymnastics.

He neglected to mention that Taiwan is not part of the UN, so they pretty much ignored the Philippines ruling too.

There is no year zero. When the Gregorian calendar was established, it went from 1 BC directly to 1 AD the following year.

No way bro did the Nebula ad when we haven’t seen a logistics of X video in like a year 😅

WOW!

Paracel, Spratley, South China Sea Man, I know all of these. From Bf4. Not gonna lie, it's just a beach episode of Balkans

Simultaneously flies to... that's an impressive plane.

Even calling it the south China sea makes it seem like it belongs to them. Might as well call it the south Taiwan sea to piss them off.

These islands are loaded with GUANO. Guano is like Spice in Dune. He who controls the guano will have control over the Empire !

4:56 The bottom left corner reads "TEU count circa 2022". However, the numbers on screen are measured in thousands of TEUs, not TEUs.

if watergun fights are fine, that means it's time to deploy metal gear ray

Sam for jet lag you should do a tag across the world that last a week

Land is land, it doesn't have "memory". Who "owns" the land is whoever has the power to defend the land from others.

Audaciousness? I think you mean audacity! 😅

It's easy to see but hard to believe that a fight over these tiny islands and/or Taiwan could escalate ultimately into a nuclear war between superpowers. How absurd!!

Western indo pacific or Philippine sea , Or north by south China sea is a tiny 150 mile from shore being very kind to them when saying this but unfortunately they've spent huge money to get people to call a massive exaggerated area this name south China sea. Ppl see China on a map and overlook the fact its island nations who own more international waters in this sea than China ever has.

Every Chinese comment looks like one of the following: We are strong. You are weak. Yours are mine. Hahahahahahaha😂😂😂😂😂

Im not going to lie, the only thing this video has done for me is making me want to play BF4 again

Philippines claiming a disputed island with a rusty ship is hardly any international order.

@15:02 "China was found in the wrong"

The Sierra Madre, the pride of the Philippine navy!

This is just a massive game of Anno 2070

The main port of Taiwan is Kaohsiung in the south of it, not Taipei, which is not even on the coast and is in the north, and not even by the South China Sea.

Shockingly, the US is right in the middle of it.🙄

Sierra madre?!?! Fallout new Vegas reference?!?!?? Elijah now holds that Territorial claim!?!?

3:36 they called the program after Fallout New Vegas casino =)

Well if it's a stalemate, it's good. They all want to protect their trade routes in the end.

Oooh look new plane video! *clicks*

Maybe there is a perfect world where every country has its own EEZ's rights respected and enforced. 😥

that beached philippines ship feels like something straight out of a bethesda game

We all need to learn from the Icelandic Coast Guard on how to deal with illegal fishing vessels.

Why is the reach of Han dynasty sovereignty even relevant when it comes to modern day China? You're conceding *so* much by even mentioning that talking point. Does Italy have a right to claim all of Spain, France, England, Egypt, Turkey, the Balkans, and the entirety of northern Africa because the Roman empire once occupied it?

This just in: a volcanic island has just appeared today, China has recently discovered 12 century documents claiming these newly created islands has belonged to China since the 1800’s

Funnily enough, in the Tom Clancy video game/novel "SSN", the plot revolves around China kicking off a shooting war over these Islands with the US due to an untapped oilfield being discovered nearby and seizing the US-flagged oil exploration vessel which made the discovery.

The thing is, that's not an island. Loooll

China are also provoking Australia. Remember the sonar incident that injured Aussie divers?

only Malaysia and Brunei interpretation makes sense lmao

The islands themselves have little value, but who controls them controls the see around them (what’s really important) and the oil/gas underneath

UN: "Nobody can have these atolls" China: "Nuh-uh"