Taiping Island, also known as Itu Aba, and various other names, is the largest of the naturally occurring Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.C. Michael Hogan (2011) South China Sea Topic ed. P.Saundry. Ed.-in-chief C.J.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC The island is elliptical in shape being in length and in width, with an area of . It is located on the northern edge of the Tizard Bank (Zheng He Reefs; ). The runway of the Taiping Island Airport is easily the most prominent feature on the island, running its entire length.
The island is administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan), as part of Cijin, Kaohsiung. It is also claimed by the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Philippines and Vietnam.
In 2016, in the ruling by an arbitral tribunal in the intergovernmental Permanent Court of Arbitration, in the case brought by the Philippines against China, the tribunal classified Itu Aba as a "rock" under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) (and therefore not entitled to a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf). Both the Republic of China (Taiwan) and People's Republic of China rejected this ruling. According to an article from ASPI, a significant portion of international opinion views Itu Aba as an "island," despite the Tribunal's ruling, and that very few experts expected it to be classified as a "rock".
The adjacent unpopulated Zhongzhou Reef (Ban Than Reef) is also under the control of Taiwan.
Names
In 1946, the Republic of China named it Taiping Island (Mandarin ) in honour of an ROC Navy warship, (), which sailed to the island when Japan surrendered after the Second World War. The name Taiping Island is used by both the government in Taipei (ROC)Soong, Grace, "Taiping Island camp shows sovereignty: Ma", The China Post, July 19, 2011. and in Beijing (PRC).Zhu Xianlong, "Commentary: Taiwan Independence No Easy Thing", People's Daily Online, August 14, 2002. The island was also called by Hainanese fishermen in their dialect as "Widuabe" (), in Mandarin and .
Outside of China and Taiwan, a common name for the island is Itu Aba, which was in use prior to 1946. Two different etymological origins have been proposed for this name: that it is a Malay expression meaning "What's that?" (conventionally spelled in ); or that it is a corruption of Hainanese: Widuabe (). Some Western sources including U.S. government publications continue to use "Itu Aba" as the primary designator of the land feature, often with "Taiping" in parentheses.
The Vietnamese name for the island is Ba Binh (, )"VN demands a stop to violation of sovereignty", Vietnam+, May 10, 2012."Historical documents on Vietnam’s sovereignty over Paracel and Spratly islands ", VietNamNet, June 24, 2011. and the Philippine English name is Ligao Island (or in Filipino/).
During the Japanese occupation of the island 1939–45, the name was used.D. J. Hancox, John Robert Victor Prescott, (1997). Secret hydrographic surveys in the Spratly Islands. Maritime Institute of Malaysia, p.91.
History
From before the 1870s the island was used by fishermen from Hainan. They had a semi-permanent settlement. Supplies were shipped from Hainan to the island in exchange for turtle shells.Tizard Bank – Footnote, The China Sea Directory, Hydrographic Office – Admiralty, published by J D Potter, London 1879, page 66
China first asserted sovereignty in the modern sense to the South China Sea island when it formally objected to France's efforts to incorporate Itu Aba and other islands and rocks into French Indochina during the 1884–1885 Sino-French war. The French conceded the Paracels and Spratly Islands to the Qing government, in exchange for recognition of Vietnam as a French territory.
Sensing the weaknesses of the Republic of China, France formally incorporated the Paracel and Spratly islands into French Indochina in 1932, a year after the Japanese formally invaded northeast China (Manchuria). China and Japan both protested. On 6 April 1933, France seized the Spratlys, formally included them in French Indochina, and built a couple of weather stations on them, but did not disturb the numerous Chinese fishermen it found there. On 3 July 1938, French Indochinese colonial troops also formally occupied the Paracel islands in the name of French Indochina. The following year in March 1939, Japan took both the Paracel and Spratly islands from France, garrisoned them, and built a submarine base on Taiping (太平) Island. In 1941, the Japanese Empire made the Paracel and Spratly islands part of Taiwan, then under its rule.
In 1945, in accordance with the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations and with American help, the armed forces of the Republic of China government at Nanjing accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in Taiwan, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Nanjing then declared both archipelagoes to be part of Guangdong Province. It was administratively attached to the municipality of Takao (Kaohsiung) in the Japanese colony of Taiwan. On 6 November 1946, the ROC government sent four warships to the South China Sea to secure islands within the region, commanded by Lin Zun and Yao Ruyu (): ROCS Chung-Yeh (), ROCS Yung-hsing (), () and ROCS Chung-chien (). The warships departed from Guangzhou and headed towards the Spratly and Paracel island groups. On 12 December the two ships led by Lin Zun, ROCS Tai-ping and ROCS Chung-Yeh, arrived at Taiping Island. In commemoration of the island being secured, the island was chosen to be named after the ROCS Tai-ping warship, and thus a stone stele reading "Taiping island" was erected on a breakwater tip southwest of the island. (Lu Yiran), 2007. (A modern history of China's borders), Vol. 2. (Sichuan People's Publishing), pp.1092–1093. On 3 October 1946, China's leader Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the Navy to send a force to take control of the South China Sea islands: this force left Shanghai on 29 October, arriving at Itu Aba on one and a half months later, after stopping at the Paracel Islands. This expedition was assisted with US naval logistical support. The other three ships likewise had their names used: Woody Island (in the Paracels) was named Yongxing (Yung-hsing) Island (presently PRC-occupied), Triton Island (Paracels) was named Zhongjian (Chung-chien) Island (presently PRC-occupied), and Thitu Island (Spratlys) was named Zhongye (Chung-Yeh) Island (presently Philippines-occupied).
Imperial Japanese forces would not depart from the archipelago until 1946. In July 1949, French naval forces reported encountering both a Chinese Nationalist and a Chinese Communist force garrisoning Itu Aba Island.
After being secured by Nationalist China, the island was placed under the administration of China's Guangdong Province. When the Chinese Communists gained control of mainland China, the defeated Nationalists retreated to Taiwan, but retained control of the Taiping garrison. Japan officially renounced its control and transferred the island to the trusteeship of the Allied Powers within the San Francisco Peace Treaty on September 8, 1951. A different interpretation is that Japan officially renounced its sovereignty and transferred the island to the Republic of China under the provisions of the Taipei Peace Treaty.
In 1952, a Philippine civilian (Tomás Cloma) began to mine sulfur from Taiping Island after claiming it as part of Freedomland and that same year, a note attached to the Treaty of Taipei provided the Nationalist Chinese arguments for sovereignty over the island. The Nationalists established a permanent presence on the island in July 1956.Severino, Rodolfo, Where in the World Is the Philippines?: Debating Its National Territory, 2011, p. 79, .
From 2000, a detachment of the ROC Coast Guard Administration was stationed on the island, replacing the Marine Corps detachment. The Taiping Island Airport was completed in December 2007,"MND admits strategic value of Spratly airstrip." Taipei Times. 6 January 2006. p. 2 (MND is the ROC Ministry of National Defense) and a C-130 Hercules transporter airplane first landed on the island on 21 January 2008.
On 2 February 2008, ROC president Chen Shui-bian personally visited the island accompanied by a significant naval force including two fleets with Kidd class destroyer flagships and two submarines.Shih Hsiu-chuan, Hsu Shao-hsuan, and Jimmy Chuang. "President visits disputed islands." Taipei Times. 3 February 2008. p. 1. On 19 April 2011, it was announced that the Marine Corps would once again be stationed on the island.Cindy Sui, 19 April 2011, Taiwan to boost forces in disputed Spratly Islands, BBC News
In February 2012, the ROC began construction of an antenna tower and associated facilities with the purpose of providing navigation assistance for aircraft landing. The tower had a planned height of approximately , and was scheduled to be completed in April 2012, and fully functional after proper testing in September 2012.6 February 2012, , Liberty Times In July 2012, ROC authorities revealed a project which intended to extend the runway by , which would allow the island to accommodate various kinds of military aircraft.July 15, 2012, Taiwan mulls extending runway in Spratlys: report, The West Australian
In late August 2013, the ROC government announced that it would spend US$112 million on upgrading the island's airstrip, and constructing a dock capable of allowing its 3,000-ton Coast Guard cutters to dock, due to be completed by 2016.2013-09-02, Taiwan Plans New Infrastructure for Disputed South China Sea Claim, Voice of America
On July 12, 2016, a tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration backed the Philippines in an arbitration proceedings against China's "nine-dash line" claim which includes Taiping Island controlled by Taiwan. Both China and Taiwan have strongly rejected the ruling.
Geography
Ecology The flora and fauna present on and surrounding the island include swallows, papaya plant, coast oak, terminalia trees, lotus leaf tung tree, goodeniaceae, sea lemon, long stem chrysanthemum, long-saddle rattan, gray grass, coconut tree, banana tree, white-tailed tropicbird, sparrow hawk, tropical fish, jellyfish and various other organisms. The Island is also a nesting ground for green sea turtles migrating from Philippines.
Geology and landform The island has a long and narrow shape that is low and flat, that is approximately long and wide. The area of the north–south coastline is , and the coastal vegetation line range is . The mean tidewater over land area is approximately , and during low sea tides the water reefs and land area is , above sea level.
Since Taiping island is a coral island, the surface includes fine sand and coral reefs formed by weathering. Around the island are sandy beaches, with narrower beaches on the south and north sides wide, on the east side wide, and on the southwest side wide. The sand accumulated on the beach is rosy coloured, mainly formed from red coral fragments and shell debris.
A long core sample was obtained by the CPC Corporation. The rock layers were estimated to be as old as 780,000 years at the mark and over 2 million years past the mark.
Natural resources The island has historically been mined for phosphates to the point of exhaustion, and today has no major natural resources. There is potentially a large amount of undiscovered reserves of oil and natural gas beneath surrounding waters within the South China Sea Basin, however, there has yet to be formal exploration and mining conducted.
Weather Taiping Island has a tropical monsoon climate, with the temperature varying between 21 and 35 degrees Celsius (70 to 90 °F). There is a strong southwest monsoon in summer months in June and July, with strong southwest wind and currents, and during the time typhoons become frequent there is abundant rainfall. The rainy season occurs during November and December.