The South China Sea has always been, and remains, an area of confrontation. The two wars in Vietnam for long obscured the conflict between China and Vietnam, but the fact remains that Hanoi and Beijing forces have clashed on two occasions since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Since then China and Vietnam have resumed relations and agreed on their land frontier and that in the Gulf of Tongkin, but disagreements still exist over other maritime areas. These principally concern the Paracel Islands, which both countries claim, and in the Spratlys, which are claimed in whole or part by the five neighbouring countries which, following developments in maritime law, have taken on board the full significance of these small islets.

Delimitation of Natuna Sea

The Malaysian Federation groups together some former British possessions in the South China Sea and consists of a mainland part, the southern end of the Malayan Peninsula, and an island part which includes Sabah and Sarawak, on the northern coast of Borneo. Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur began the definition of their borders on the continental shelf in the Strait of Malacca and the Natuna Sea in October 1969.

Sino-Vietnamese Disagreements

Historically, Hanoi and Beijing have had disagreements over their land and maritime borders, but Chinese support for North Vietnam during the second Vietnam War long overshadowed this rivalry. The Chinese Army’s occupation of the Paracel Islands in January 1974, until then under South Vietnamese control, did not elicit any protest from the Hanoi government, but incidents on the land border separating Vietnam and China became more frequent after the end of the war in 1975. They ended in violent conflicts all along the land border in February 1979. Bilateral relations were progressively re-established from 1991 and an agreement defining the principles for putting an end to the land and maritime border disputes was arrived at in October 1993. Thereafter, in 1999, the heads of state of the two countries committed themselves to reaching agreement on the land border, and in 2000 on the maritime border in the Gulf of Tongkin.