As China uphold its controversial claim - staking throughout Asia , a corner of the academic reality is becoming an unlikely focal peak in the dispute : archeology . More specifically , the thousands of shipwrecks that litter the South China Sea — which China is sharply claiming as grounds to back up its right to command the sea .
China has enthusiastically bolstered its marine archaeology program over the retiring two decades , which many depict as a foil for the country ’s political inhalation . By lay claim shipwreck as Chinese , the government is strengthen its claim to the South China Sea , a full of life transportation route between many burgeoning southeastern Asiatic economic hubs .
China want command of it — and it ’s go to great lengths to interlock it down . concord to The Wall Street Journal , that includesrunning off international archeologistsworking on excavation in the region — for instance , at a 13th century wreck near the Philippines being examined by a team of French scientists , who were ordered off from the internet site by the Formosan surveillance ship .
Images : Chinese officials promote an 800 - year - old merchandiser ship , chance upon in 1987 , from the bottom of the South China Sea , in 2007 . Photos by China Photos / Getty Images .
The sea is only one piece of the equivalence . Only a few days ago , China introduce a novel air call , called the East China Sea Air - Defense Identification Zone ( or ADIZ),designed to give it controlof island also arrogate by Japan . The U.S. , Japan , and South Korea have all tested the earnestness of ADIZ over the past week , suggest that it could be no more than posturing on the part of a country intent on staking claims all over the region .
In compare to the gamy - tension ADIZ billet , running off a few maritime archaeologists in the South China Sea is hardly news . But it foreshadows the changing nature of how territory is claimed and contest — not only by China , but by nations in general . For case , this week Canada will follow Russia and Denmark infiling a title to the North Pole , base on a $ 200 million survey of the arctic seafloor using remote control - controlled grinder . And similarly , scientists in the U.S. arecarefully mappingthe seafloor that it owns rights to , as far as 200 miles out to sea .
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As we get to know our oceans better — whether thanks to GPS , self-governing submarines , or marine archeological digs — the way we define national boundary is change . [ Wall Street Journal ]
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