The Six-Country Fight Over These Tiny, Terrible Islands

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Viki Lewis, Alexander Williard
Lead Motion Design by Max Moser
Motion Design by Derek Brown, Mikaila Blackburn
Audio and Music by Manni Simon, Donovan Bullen
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster
Supervising Producers Graham Haerther, Travis Southerland

[arlendpetermalig]

As a Filipino, we are willing to share the spratlys to everyone who has a claim on it except China.

[gobbel]

I have actually recently been wondering what was happening in that conflict right now, because I had looked into it a few years back. It's sad but also unsurprising to hear that nothing really has changed and the situation only keeps getting tenser.

[knpark]

Everyone gangster until Mongolia reclaims their old lines on the map...

[rubbersidedown]

Tom Clancy wrote a book about a conflict between China and the US stemming from competition over the Spratlys over 20 years ago. It's crazy to see what I hoped would be a work of fiction, slowly being made real.

[DelAoc]

The Philippines and Vietnam in fact signed a strategic agreement at Hanoi in January 2024 on security cooperation and to take a common position regarding the South China Sea. These two countries are the main opponents against China's ambition in the SCS region.

[EpicAdventuresPH]

You forgot to mention that Filipino fishermen already fish at Scarborough Shoal during the Spanish colonial period. The Murillo Velarde map of 1734 documents this with the name Panatag Shoal, which is what Filipinos call Scarborough at the time.

[chheinrich]

These are The new balkans, to partially use a quote from Bismarck, „some damn foolish thing in the South China Sea will set of a war“
Edit: wow, this really blow up in Popularity

[KevinEnjoyer]

Fun fact. With a Western Imperialist perspective, the *French* were the first to lay a sovereign claim to anything in the South China Sea. And they did so in 1933, where French Captain Georges Meesemaecker and his small flotilla would lay French Empirical claim to nine small rocks, all done with trumpets, a flag, and a letter in a bottle outlining the claim.

The UK can't do this, despite the fact that they were there 99 years earlier and named the Spratly Islands. They saw, they named, but they never claimed:)

[ezekiel]

I'm a Filipino so I hear about the news regularly. While I hate what's going on, my sad hope is that it just goes on forever. At least never escalate

[utkphilobio]

The thing is that even if it is the same body of water referred to in those ancient texts, it genuinely does not matter. That's not how we settle claims because every place on the planet has about a dozen people who could make such a claim about it. Or does China think that Mongolia should be allowed to take over most of its territory?

[EthanQ]

China: "Why do people hate us?" also China: "All your islands are ours!"

[petitblanc]

You just need 1 loony leader in one of those countries for this to turn into a beach episode of ukraine

[DavidLimofLimReport]

As a Malaysian I'm so happy you're doing this topic

[sergioacevedo]

There was no year 0. The Gregorian Calendar goes from 1BC->1AD.

[johnnychen]

Here's one cool detail, the name of the historical document China referenced for its claim - Yiwu Zhi 異物誌 literally means "archive of the strange and foreign things" as in things that are strange and foreign to China. So that means the reefs are .... get this... not Chinese.😂

[prettypic]

The next global season of Jetleg is gonna be super hard with Sam banned from all these countries

[dgoddard]

Just another problem that an epic game of Paper, Rock, Scissors could solve.

[Ritz]

Indonesia also has started to get pulled in this mess due to the fact that despite the Natuna Islands being universally recognized as Indonesian territory & far from the ultra-disputed coral islands, China (and technically also Taiwan's)South China Sea lines touched and even overlapped Indonesia's (again universally recognized) EEZ at their farthest reaches, which caused tensions between Indonesia and Chinese coast guards.

[Heartwing]

Glad to know we’re destroying coral reefs so we can…overfish?

[shoubear]

Surprisly, I saw no mentions or references to PAG-ASA ISLAND in this video. Implying that the only stake of the Philippines in the area is just a grounded landing vessel.

Maybe I just missed it.