Chinese Scholars Claim Philippine Batanes Islands
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- Tao people from Taiwan's Orchid Island sailed the traditional ipanitika vessel Ovayan to Batanes in June, retracing a trade route disrupted roughly 300 years ago; 20 rowers made the 24-hour journey, supported by 40 others on a second vessel that will remain on display for six months.
- Chinese academics at Jinan University in Guangzhou, including scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Nanjing University, and the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, claimed Batanes was administered from Taiwan during the Ming and Qing dynasties and urged China to "safeguard China's sovereignty of the Batanes Islands."
- Batanes residents share close cultural ties with Taiwan's Tao people — whose language is classified as Batanic rather than Formosan Austronesian — and the islands hosted Qing-era Chinese fishing activity, both of which the scholars cited to bolster their assertions.
- The Marcos and Takaichi administrations agreed to begin Japan-Philippines maritime delimitation talks in overlapping EEZ waters east of Taiwan, framed under UNCLOS and apparently triggering the Chinese academic assertions.
- The claims came during the 10-year anniversary of a 2016 UNCLOS arbitral ruling against China in favor of the Philippines over South China Sea claims; Taiwan objected to its exclusion from such mechanisms, particularly Itu Aba/Taiping Island being classified as a rock rather than an island.
- Chinese state media have previously cast doubt on Japanese sovereignty over Okinawa by invoking Ming-era Ryukyu Kingdom tributary ties — and Taiwan itself was called "Lesser Ryukyu" under the Ming dynasty, underscoring how premodern history is being mobilized in contemporary territorial disputes.
Why it matters: The claims arrived on the 10th anniversary of a 2016 UNCLOS ruling against Beijing and just as Japan and the Philippines agreed to begin maritime delimitation talks in overlapping EEZ waters east of Taiwan. Manila's officials flatly stated China never administered Batanes, and the assertion echoes Beijing's prior historical claims over Okinawa — suggesting a pattern rather than an isolated academic exercise.
