China is one of the oldest claimants in the South China Sea Dispute, and its claim to the area has been criticized as undefined. This paper will review the process, through which China’s claim was established and changed, and try to distinguish the clear part and the undefined part of its claim.
Since 1930s, China has continuously repeated its sovereignty over the four “archipelagoes” in the South China Sea. “Archipelago” is claimed as a united geographical feature but not separated islands. But the extents of those archipelagoes haven’t been officially described yet.
The ambiguity of china’s marine claim is in three perspective: the extent of the “adjacent water”, the definition of the “historic right” and the “internal water” in those archipelagoes.

本研究は中国国家留学基金の研究助成を受けている。