从南威岛到南沙群岛:英国南沙政策的起源与形成(1930—1933年)

From Spratly Island to Spratly Islands:The Origin and Formation of British Policy on Spratly Islands,1930-1933

1930—1933年英国在应对法国侵占南沙岛屿及日本对南沙之野心的过程中,逐步形成“不承认不放弃”政策,即为英国南沙政策的早期形态。1930年法国抢占南威岛,英国在“殖民情结”触动下和法国交涉。英国随后以帝国防务安全为决策基点,想象南沙之于帝国防务安全的重要性,把关注对象扩展到整个南沙。英国企图自证南威岛和安波沙洲为其殖民属地,终因缺乏法理依据而放弃。1933年法国制造“九小岛事件”,引发中法、日法交涉。鉴于日本为头号潜在敌国而法国为友邦之战略定位及南沙局势可控,英国变换策略:在不诉诸军事手段的情况下,通过在法理上“赋予”南沙不可兼并的属性,否定任何国家吞并南沙的合法性,但对法国的侵占行径暂取容忍态度,同时坚持从未声明放弃对南威岛和安波沙洲之所有权要求的立场,并以日本不侵占南沙、法国不扩大占领范围作为维持该政策的前提。质言之,英国在大国博弈视野下基于帝国防务战略而确立南沙政策。

Britain gradually formed a policy of“no recognition and no renunciation”in the process of dealing with France's occupation of Spratly Islands and Japan's ambition of Spratly Islands from 1930 to 1933,which is the early form of British policy on Spratly Islands.In 1930,Facing the French occupation of Spratly Island,Britain initially negotiated with France under the touch of“colonial complex”.Subsequently,Britain took the security of imperial defense as a decision-making standpoint,imagined that Spratly Islands was important to imperial defense,and expanded its focus to the whole Spratly Islands.Britain tried to prove that Spratly Island and Amboyna Cay as their colonial possessions,but eventually gave up due to lack of legal basis.France created the“Nine Isles Incident”in 1933,which triggered Sino-French negotiation and Japan-French negotiation.Given that Japan is the number one potential enemy and France is a friend,under the situation of controllability,Britain changed its tactics:On the premise of not resorting to military means,it denied the legitimacy of any country to annex Spratly Islands by“giving”Spratly Islands the attribute of unannexable in jurisprudence,but temporarily tolerated France's occupation.It insisted on the position that it had never renounce claims of Spratly Island and Amboyna Cay,and maintained this policy on the premise that Japan would not occupy Spratly Islands and France would not expand its occupation.In essence,Britain established the policy on Spratly Islands based on the imperial defense strategy under the vision of great power game.