The State Oceanic Administration (SOA), the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Headquarters of the General Staff of Chinese People's Liberation Army on June 17, 2003 jointly issued the Administrative Regulation on Protection and Use of Uninhabited Islands, the first of its kind, which came into force on July 1. According to the regulations, both corporate bodies and individuals are entitled to apply for approval if they want to use uninhabited islands.
 
SOA figures show that China has more than 6,500 islands each with an area larger than 500 square meters, of which 94 percent are uninhabited. According to sources in the SOA, since the promulgation of the regulation, four applications have been filed so far to lease the uninhabited Diaoyu Islands.
 
Territorial disputes
 
Diaoyu Islands are a group of eight uninhabited islands located in the East China Sea, 120 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan and 240 nautical miles southwest of the Ryukyu Islands, with a total area of approximately 7 square kilometers.
 
The first discovery of the Diaoyu Islands by Chinese fishermen dates back to 1373 in the Ming Dynasty. The earliest historical records of Diaoyu Islands are Chinese navigation records from 1403, and references to the islands occur in Chinese logs and Chinese maps of the Ryukyu chain from that time. For several centuries, the Diaoyu Islands have been an integral part of China and have always been used exclusively by Chinese fishermen as a base for fishing.
 
In 1969, the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (UNECAFE) suggested possible large hydrocarbon deposits in the waters off Diaoyu Islands. A crisis occurred in 1978 when the Japanese right wing political group Nihon Seinensha (Democratic Youth League of Japan) illegally erected a lighthouse on Diaoyu Islands in an attempt to legitimize Japanese territorial claims over the islands. The event raised angry protests from Chinese communities all around the world. Nihon Seinensha made landings on Diaoyu Islands in 1990, 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2000 respectively. The latest illegal landing by Nihon Seinensha occurred this August.
 
As far as the Diaoyu Islands dispute is concerned, both Chinese and Japanese governments have agreed to shelve the issue for future resolution. Since the promulgation of administrative regulation on uninhabited islands, the SOA has received four formal applications for lease of the Diaoyu Islands. Instead of merely for the purpose of business development, these applications, filed by either individuals or organizations, have strong patriotic overtones.
 
In addition, in the vast South China Sea are situated many disputed islands and reefs, some of which have been occupied by neighboring countries, said Jia Yu, director of the Division of the Law of the Sea with the Institute for Marine Development Strategy.
 
In the waters off the Nansha Islands (also known as the Spratlys), the oil reserves at the bottom of the sea hit 20 billion tons. Although China initiated the principle of "putting aside disputes and engaging in joint exploitation," according to Jia, by ignoring China completely, some countries either introduced a third party to tap marine resources together or did it unilaterally. China has a total of eight neighboring countries contiguous to opposite coasts. Among them not a single one has ever finally demarcated maritime boundaries with China. In the ownership of natural resources and uninhabited islands lies the point at issue.
 
In fact, China has encouraged opening up uninhabited islands in a rational manner. It is not only of economic value but of great significance in terms of defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an island is an important mark for the delimitation of territorial seas, exclusive economic zones and a continental shelf. An island's territorial sea can amount to 1,550 square kilometers around it, and an island that is able to support human life can hold an exclusive economic zone with an area of 430,000 square kilometers. In other words, territorially owning an island means natural possession of the rights to fish and tap offshore oil and gas in a 430,000-square-kilometer sea area around it.
 
On the other hand, over-exploiting natural resources and irrationally opening up uninhabited islands may infringe upon national interests and threaten national defence. In particular, over recent years blasting islands and reefs for mining and quarrying has occurred every now and then, seriously menacing the safety of China's territorial sea base points.
 
Of 78 territorial sea base points published by China, 67 are uninhabited islands. A territorial sea base point is the starting point for the delimitation of a territorial sea. If an island were blown up, a country's sovereignty over the waters surrounding the base point would be lost automatically.
 
Island 'buying' fever warned
 
Since the new regulation allows organizations and individuals, for the first time, to use uninhabited islands, lots of people set their eyes on uninhabited offshore islands, hoping money will keep rolling in based on the development of the islands.
 
Nevertheless, first and foremost, according to the regulation, uninhabited islands belong to the nation; with the approval of competent authorities, organizations and individuals are eligible to lease rather than "buy" the islands, and the authorized maximum lease period is no more than 50 years, explained Wang Zhong, director of the Office of Islands and Coastal Zone Management under the SOA. Accurately speaking, what organizations and individuals have is the right of use and exploitation instead of ownership, Wang said.
 
To take Zhejiang as an example, this coastal province in southeast China boasts 3,061 islands over 500 square meters in area, ranking first nationwide, of which more than 2,800 are uninhabited, accounting for over 90 percent of the province's total islands. An optimistic estimate claims that at least half of Zhejiang's uninhabited islands have commercial potential, and approximately 30 percent are worth immediate development.
 
So far, what have been publicized are regulatory documents. As far as Zhejiang is concerned, the enactment of detailed bylaws depends on feedback from different quarters. "In view of this, more detailed bylaws may come out this September if things turn out to be satisfactory; in any case, no later than the end of next year," said Fu Shu, deputy chief of the Division of Maritime Space Management under Marine & Fishery Department of Zhejiang Province.
 
As for the rent for an uninhabited island, it hinges on comprehensive elements including island acreage, natural environment, distance to the mainland, mode of development, etc., according to Zhu Jiali, chief of the Division of Maritime Space Management under Marine & Fishery Department of Zhejiang Province. Actually, in the subsidiary regulations that are to be worked out, very possibly the development project will become a decisive factor in determining the price, Zhu predicted.
 
In terms of an island lease, a blind "gold rush" mentality is not considered desirable. Island development is regarded as an investment behavior, for which the local government may offer preferential policies, Fu Shu said. Of course, a fundamental precondition is that the development project itself must meet the requirements by the authorities concerned, doing no harm both to the local environment and to coastal defence.
 
Specifically, there is great promise for the development of a tourist industry on many uninhabited islands with fine surroundings, pointed out Zhang Youhua, deputy director of the Bureau of Foreign Trade in Zhoushan city, Zhejiang Province. Attracting more and more visitors to visit the picturesque islands will give great impetus to the local economy, Zhang said.
 
It's not appropriate to develop industrial projects on uninhabited islands, which demand accessory facilities such as docking means. Usually an industrial dock has to include one or more berths with tonnage level at tens of thousands of tons. However, some islands with suitable conditions can build special-purpose docks for small-sized tourist boats, for which a tonnage of several hundreds is large enough, Zhang pointed out.
 
In the final analysis, undue haste for island development must be avoided, Zhang warned. As land resources, uninhabited islands cannot be "overused" either. In this respect, a bitter price has been paid previously both in Hainan and Zhejiang Province.
 
Ecological considerations
 
Ecological protection is another issue in island development, to which great importance must be attached. Natural conditions determine that the ecological environment of uninhabited islands is extremely fragile, which falls easy prey to human activities and over-exploitation, Fu Shu pointed out. Therefore, ecological preservation remains an onerous task.
 
Before the promulgation of the regulation, exploitation in some uninhabited islands has resulted in a series of problems. For instance, unauthorized buildings were put up on some islands, and billboards and navigation marks were established on some reefs, all doing great damage to the ecological environment.
 
Zhejiang's uninhabited islands as well as coastal waters are located in the frontal surface area where the Taiwan warm current and Zhejiang coastal current meet. Varying geographical conditions have provided favorable habitats for the halobios (marine organisms) to grow and propagate. Thus it has been suggested that the development of Zhejiang's uninhabited islands should be coupled with the protection of marine eco-system.
 
According to Prof. Zou Jingzhong from the Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, many uninhabited islands host a large number of rare species. These life forms have evolved over a long period of time in a fragile living environment that is sensitive to climate changes, natural disasters, and particularly, human impact. Once destroyed by human intervention, the fragile eco-system is extremely difficult to restore.
 
As an example, Zou mentioned a variety of scallop introduced from South America into Qingdao in Shandong Province for breeding in the 1980s. Unexpectedly, the new scallop proliferated to such an extent that the local ecological environment was threatened, and measures had to be taken to curb its reproduction.
 
Yin Jianqiang, assistant professor from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology under Chinese Academy of Science, also expressed concern over the plan to exploit uninhabited islands. If the bio-diversity and ecological integrity of uninhabited islands were destroyed by human activities, the consequences would be beyond imagining. Consequently, prior ecological investigation is necessary to effectively avoid any form of destructive development in uninhabited islands, Yin appealed.
 
(China.org.cn, translated by Shao Da, October 18, 2003)