Moreover, the seeds of the territorial dispute with Vietnam and others over the sets of islands in the South China Sea were sown early in the 1950s, and it became clear that when it came to the question of sovereign claims, the composition or strength of the government concerned made little difference. In May 1950 a reported remark by President Quirino of the Philippines about the dangers to his country’s security that would arise from the occupation of the Spratlys by ‘an enemy’, was angrily denounced in Beijing, which then took the opportunity to assert its claims. A more formal claim was put forward in 1951 by Zhou Enlai to all four major sets of islands in the South China Sea, in response to the draft peace treaty with Japan. The Vietnamese delegation, represented by the Bao Dai government, at the San Francisco Peace Conference to which neither of the Chinese governments was invited, took the opportunity to state Vietnam’s claims to the Paracel and the Spratly Islands. Little of substance happened at this time, especially as the Chinese side lacked the capacity to enforce its claims.