Are the Spratly Islands an Outlying Archipelago of China? Politico-Legal Implication of Proclaiming the Spratly Islands as a China’s Outlying Archipelago that International Lawyers Should Know

The issue of the outlying archipelago of continental states under the UNCLOS system has become a serious point of contention among international lawyers. This article shows what rules international lawyers in states possessing outlying archipelagos may have found for their outlying archipelagos, thereby assessing the Chinese claims to the Spratly Islands as an outlying archipelago. This article also explores how a future Chinese proclamation of special baselines for the Spratly Islands as an outlying archipelago negatively influences the development of the South China Sea dispute, harming Chinese national interests as opposed to conventional wisdom in China.