The Making Of Philippines' Modern Territory(1898-1947)

The maintenance of China's historical rights in the South China Sea is an important task on Chinese diplomacy and international relations research in the current and future for a long time.Due to the difficulties of human activities in the ocean and sea,little attention on maritime by ancient regimes,in particular the deficiencies of documents on South China Sea in Chinese historical materials that included the distribution of the South China Sea Islands,the activities of Chinese people in the South China Sea Islands and reefs and so on,the confirmation of China's historical rights which depends on enough historical materials confronted huge challenge in the area of international relations study in China.Instead,the other neighboring countries of the South China Sea had become colonies of Western powers since modern times and their suzerain states left many materials,including map data,official documents and diplomatic archives when the colonial domination was collapsed,so those materials are useful for the study of those states'modern territory.Therefore,the making of Philippines' modern territory is chosen to be the objective of this article.Through criticizing the Philippines' claims and rights on the South China Sea,the Chinese reasonable historical rights in the South China Sea is proved from the reversed perspective.At the same time,as an important actor in the formation of modern Philippine territory,the American ambivalent diplomacy in the South China Sea is also revealed in this study,which is beneficial to China to negotiate with the United States.Territorial limits of treaties involved to Philippines were an important international legal and historical basis in the process of the formation of the modern state of Philippines.It provides the basic profile of modern Philippines national territory.Its predecessor was the lines drew up in the Treaty of Paris,which eventually evolved into Treaty Limits of Philippines by three changes.It formally asserted the boundary of American Philippines and clearly excluded Scarborough Shoal and the Nansha Islands.Even if it was discussed whether Treaty Limits can extend Huangyan Island or not in 1937-38 and research shows that the facts that the survey,naming operations and rescue activities to Huangyan Island by Spain in nineteenth Century may outline a picture of Spain's sovereignty or jurisdiction over Huangyan Island,those facts did not enable that the United States took Huangyan Island into the Philippine Islands in the 1930s according to the 1900 Treaty of Washington.The other evidence which Department of State made a claim to the sovereignty of Huangyan Island in 1938 was also invalid.Instead,in the period of the late 1930s up to the independence of the Philippines,part of the Philippine Islands maps made by US and relevant legal documents between America and Philippines proved that Philippines Treaty Limits has already fixed,and did not include Huangyan Island.The territory or Philippine Islands circled by Philippine Treaty Limits was inherited by Philippines after its independence.The practice of policy of the Philippines by America in the first half of the twentieth Century showed that US not only committed to the timely adjustment of the delineation of the bounadry of the territory of the Philippines limited by Pairs Treaty Line according to the provisions of the treaty,but strictly abided by the provisions on the territorial limits of the relevant treaty.The American diplomatic practices and the fact of Philippines' territory scope in its independence showed that the western boundary of Philippines did not run out 118 degrees east longitude and excluded the islands and reefs in the South China Sea.Therefore,the Location Map of South China Sea Islands drawn by the Chinese government in 1947 that defined Chinese historical interests in the South China Sea area did not involve any Philippine territory.U-shaped Line has its rationality and legitimacy.Philippines' later claims on the part of the South China Sea Islands,especially the Huangyan Island was unfounded.The claims on Islands and subsequent occupation in the mid-1950s by Philippines first challenged and violated the regional order which established in the South China Sea after the World War II.China's claims and efforts,however,restore the international order in the South China Sea.