MANILA, Philippines — A group of Chinese academics has asserted that the Philippines' northernmost province of Batanes belongs to China through Taiwan, a narrative that aims to support Beijing's territorial claims in the region.
The claim emerged from a June 30 symposium hosted by Jinan University in Guangzhou, where scholars from institutions including Nanjing University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other research organizations concluded that the Batan Islands are a "natural geographical extension" of Taiwan and therefore fall under China's sovereignty.
A report published by Chinese state-affiliated media outlet NewsGD said participants unanimously declared that the Philippines' administration of Batanes "lacks historical and legal basis" and that planned maritime boundary negotiations between Japan and the Philippines east of Taiwan are "illegal and invalid."
The symposium was held following the May summit between Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., where the two countries announced plans to negotiate the delimitation of their exclusive economic zones and continental shelves in waters east of Taiwan.
Chinese scholars argued that Batanes was under the jurisdiction of Taiwan during the Ming and Qing dynasties, citing historical navigation records, cultural ties between the Ivatan people and Taiwan's Tao community, and their interpretation of the 1898 Treaty of Paris and the 1946 Treaty of Manila. They further claimed the islands should have been returned to China after World War II as territories allegedly appurtenant to Taiwan.
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The academics also said that under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), Japan and the Philippines cannot negotiate a maritime boundary because Taiwan lies between the two countries.
The symposium called on the international community to recognize what it described as China's historical and legal basis for sovereignty over the Batan Islands and warned against Japan and the Philippines using maritime delimitation for geopolitical purposes.
The claims, however, have not been endorsed by the Chinese government.
Maritime security analyst Ray Powell of SeaLight said the symposium appears to be part of Beijing's broader "lawfare" strategy to establish a new territorial narrative over Batanes.
Powell said the event was likely orchestrated through Chinese academics and state media to provide legal justification for Chinese patrols conducted east of Taiwan last month, even without an official endorsement from Beijing.
"So far PRC government officials have not endorsed the symposium's conclusions, but that's not unusual in PRC gray-zone narrative warfare," Powell said in an analysis posted on social media.
The Philippines has exercised continuous administration over Batanes since the Spanish colonial period. The province forms part of Philippine territory under the country's Constitution and has long been recognized by the international community as part of the Philippines. The Philippine government has yet to issue a response to the symposium's claims.
Troelski on July 9th, 2026 at 09:57 UTC »
Taiwan was not part of the Ming Dynasty, so how does that work? It was under Dutch rule.
But also this whole "successor state" argument that China trots out all the time...would we accept it if any other nation said "look this land used to belong to a past empire we consider ourselves the successor state to, so it should belong to us"? Like if Türkiye claimed to be the successor state to the Ottoman empire (Erdogan does claim this, actually), and therefore claimed Syria, or Libya. Would anyone accept that?
Furthermore, the 1952 Treaty of Taipei that clarifies which China Taiwan was returned to after WWII, had exactly two signatories. The Republic of China (Taiwan) and Japan. So I never understood how the PRC reads that as meaning they get to have it.
eager_jonathan on July 9th, 2026 at 09:03 UTC »
The Treaty of Paris argument is a stretch when you actually look at it. That 1898 deal handed the Philippines from Spain to the United States, nothing about China or Taiwan being involved at all. Citing it as proof Batanes belongs to Beijing is the kind of reasoning that sounds clever in a symposium but falls apart the second someone reads the actual text.
The cultural ties angle with the Ivatan people and Taiwan's Tao community is more interesting but it's a poor foundation for sovereignty. Shared linguistic heritage between island groups in the Luzon Strait doesn't create ownership, otherwise half the Pacific would belong to someone else based on who fished where a few centuries back.
What gets me is how confidently these claims get packaged up with "natural geographical extension" language. It's the same playbook they've run on the South China Sea, just aimed at a different set of rocks this time. The Philippines has held Batanes continuously since the Spanish era and nobody with actual skin in the game is buying this.
Wooden-Audience5475 on July 9th, 2026 at 08:37 UTC »
China claiming land that doesn't belong to them? How could we have predicted this incredibly predictable issue?