A witches brew

A witches brew

       China will not attack Spratly Island, the largest in the Spratly chain, because it is held by Chinese Nationalist soldiers from the Republic of China, on Taiwan, which asserts the same ownership claim as the People's Republic government in Beijing.

            The South China Sea is enormous, but China reportedly plans to enforce its claim by seizing and occupying the islands that are claimed by other states, one by one, according to one Chinese report over the weekend.

            The various and often competing claims over islands in the South China Sea are all over the place.  Some of these small islands are occupied by either the Philippines, Malaysia, the Republic of China, or the People's Republic of China. Vietnam and Brunei have some competing claims, too.

            A wiki link on the Spratly Islands can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spratly_Islands

            An overhead of Spratly Island follows below:

 

Thitu Island is just over 210 miles (340 KM) northeast of Spratly Island.