You don’t think that research was biased??
Under this logic the phillipino guy established his own country… these were people acting outside of the law exploiting resources that their country didn’t even claim.
In the meantime, love to see KMT infighting.
kun fu chi too busy taking orders from his real master
A big part of claiming terra nullius is to claim occupation, that’s why every country in the region sent people to live on these tiny islands which supposedly have no fresh water. In my opinion, Itu Aba should obviously be the exception, since it has fresh water, and Japan was the first one to have people living there and built permanent structures there.
I think claiming the islands for anyone without it being specified in a treaty, or the ruling of an international court, is biased. The status of the Spratly islands is either spelled out in the Treaty of San Francisco, or they aren’t islands at all, so no terra regardless of how nullius, and no one gets to claim them.
It’s not terra nullius when the Filipino guy claimed it because the government administrating Taiwan on behalf of the Allied Powers protested against his actions and sent warships to drive him off.
Individuals acting outside of their governments don’t create sovereign claims.
Uh huh, and what constitutes a government anyway. All these nut cases that tried to form their own nation on oil rigs and stuff like that got people to come and form a “government”, issued “money” and “passports”.
France was the first legitmate claim, and the japanese claim came from defeating france.
France’s claim wasn’t legitimate because the islands were already occupied by inhabitants belonging to a state.
They weren’t occupied… there were some squatters there.
A state that didn’t claim the islands… they had no legal right to be there.
Have you ever heard of the Guano Islands Act, and seen how many islands private US citizens claimed for the US by mining for guano on the islands, exactly like what the Japanese citizens did on the Spratly Islands?
Japanese aren’t americans, the guano act doesn’t apply. I just read an account that the japanese miner asked permission from the french in saigon to mine…
As the french acquired existing claims to the parcels and spratlys when they acquired french indochina.
The french were merely asserting their sovereignty when they formally annexed the spratlys.
The US can claim islands using terra nullius when private citizens mines guano there. So can the Japanese.
Good luck telling that to the PRC and the ROC.
By the way, did you know that the name 南沙群島 originally referred to the Scarborough Shoal and Macclesfield Bank in the general vicinity of the Paracel Islands, and not the Spratly Islands? The area was only renamed from 南沙群島 to 中沙群島 until Sep 13, 1946, and at the same time they moved the title of 南沙群島 further south to refer to the Spratly Islands.
That was done under an Act no such Act existed in Japan.
If such a thing isn’t internationally acceptable, you think an act could justify it? China has plenty of acts claiming Taiwan is a part of China, and giving them the rights to arrest anyone from any country that claims otherwise, do the acts justify China doing whatever the crap it wants?
Because the individuals were empowered by the Act to make a claim. A claim that can normally only be made by a nation.
Yes, and Japan told the French that they’ve made that claim.
Post fact, plus doesn’t count if miner sought french approval to mine in first place.
Where did you post your source for Japan requesting French approval? The last source you posted was asking google gemini.
I already provided French’s account of protest from the Japanese government after the French sent naval ships to force out the Japanese on Itu Aba.
If you read the US’ Guano Act, you’d see the accepted international convention at the time was:
Whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of guano on any island, rock, or key, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other Government, and not occupied by the citizens of any other Government, and takes peaceable possession thereof, and occupies the same, such island, rock, or key may, at the discretion of the president, be considered as appertaining to the United States.
— Section 1 of the Guano Islands Act
The French did not follow this convention when they forced out the Japanese.