By Carl Thayer*
Where is China’s claim to ninety percent of South China Sea rooted? ANSWER: The present-day claim by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the South China Sea is based on an eleven-dash line map produced by a government department in the Republic of China around 1947-48. The PRC dropped two of the dash lines in the early 1950s drawn in the Gulf of Tonkin (Beibu Gulf).
