Taiwan president fires parting shot in South China Sea

It looked like a routine trip to an outlying island for outgoing Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou, but the political status of Itu Aba meant his recent journey was anything but.

The president lost an election on 16 January, and was set to leave office in May.

Itu Aba, known in Chinese as Taiping, is the largest natural island in the Taiwan archipelago. The key issue was that it was still claimed by both Chinas, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The People's Republic was not so concerned by the visit, it seemed, with Beijing giving Ma's 'one-China' policy its nod of approval. As far as they were concerned, any land claims by Taiwan were land claims by China.

There was a risk that the Philippines and Vietnam would retailiate in some way, sending the South China Sea region on a path to further instability. While either ASEAN member could make high-profile visits to islands they occupied, provoking China, that remained unlikely.

The prospect had the United States concerned enough for its representative in Taipei to issue a denunciation of Ma's "extremely unhelpful" sojourn to Itu Aba on the same day the president's office announced it.

Not only was Ma looking to assert Taiwan's claim to the island in a potentially misinformed parting shot, but he could have been trying to publicly rebut arguments put forward by the Philippines at The Hague.

The Filipinos believe Itu Aba is a rock that, under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, cannot sustain human life, and therefore any claimant to the island would only be able to claim 12 nautical miles of territorial waters, rather than 200 miles of exclusive economic zone.

Ma's trip was the latest move in the tense area. China had recently been building out rocks and reefs that it claims, creating islands big enough for landing strips. It also recently moved an oil rig into waters claimed by Vietnam. Last time that happened, it sparked fatal anti-China riots.

But China has been brushing off all criticism, saying it believes the US is causing panic as part of a plan to keep the People's Republic at bay. One official told the Economist that the complaints are akin to "smashing the windows of your neighbour's house and then saying, 'We are being threatened'."