Beijing Hopes This Cartoon Will Change Your Mind about the South China Sea

Gary Sands

Politics, Asia

It probably won't sway any rulings in the Hague, though.

Ahead of an imminent ruling by an international tribunal in The Hague over a case brought by Manila concerning China’s claims to the South China Sea, state-owned China Central Television (CCTV) ran a video on June 21 to highlight Beijing’s argument. The video (sanctioned by the Chinese Central Propaganda Department, or Central Publicity Department in English) was shared by CCTV on Weibo, China’s widely popular microblogging site.

The video seemingly attempts to rally domestic support in advance of the ruling from The Hague, and follows a fairly unsuccessful attempt to rally international support for their maritime territorial claims under a self-proclaimed nine-dash line, or “cow’s tongue.” Through the use of English subtitles, this latest effort at propaganda is not only determined to convince its citizens, but others in the English-speaking world, that its claims to 90 percent of the South China Sea are based on historical facts and deserve respect.

The cartoon video starts off by appealing to Chinese wallets and purses: “Do you want to buy the most fashionable cloth [sic]? Or electronic devices with the state-of-the-art technology?” This economic concern is then linked to politics, as the availability of these goods relies on security in the high seas, “You’d better pray for the peace and safety of the ocean. That’s right, I’m talking about the South China Sea!”

The video uses an historical approach to make its case, as the video claims China was the first to discover and name the Nansha islands (Spratly in English, Trường Sa in Vietnamese and Kapuluan ng Kalayaan in Tagalog). The case is then made that during the Ming and Qing dynasties, China “affirmed the jurisdiction of its sovereignty”—without detailing the specifics.