Maritime conflicts in the vast South China Sea have increased in recent years as China has increasingly militarized disputed islands and clashed with regional rivals over their claims to the islands. The waterway is rich in resources and strategically important.
Bordered by China and several Southeast Asian nations, parts of this vital economic route are claimed by several governments, with Beijing claiming ownership of almost the entire route. water, regardless of the verdict of international justice.
Over the past two decades, China has occupied several reefs and atolls far from its coast in the South China Sea, building military facilities including airstrips and ports.
Competing claimants, such as the Philippines, say such actions erode their sovereignty and violate maritime law.
And the United States agrees, regularly sending Navy destroyers to participate in freedom of navigation operations near disputed islands, raising concerns that the South China Sea could become a flashpoint between the two superpowers.
This 1.3 million square kilometer waterway is vital to international trade, with an estimated one-third of global shipping worth billions of dollars passing through it each year.
This is also home to a large and fertile fishing ground on which many people’s lives and livelihoods depend.
However, much of its economic value remains untapped. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the waterway holds at least 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil.
Who controls these resources and how they are exploited can have a huge impact on the environment. The South China Sea is home to hundreds of uninhabited atolls and atolls as well as diverse wildlife threatened by climate change and marine pollution.
Beijing claims “indisputable sovereignty” over nearly all of the South China Sea, as well as most of its islands and shoals, including many features hundreds of kilometers from the Chinese mainland. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also have different claims.
In 2016, an international court in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a historic maritime dispute, concluding that China had no legal basis to claim historic rights to most of the Sea. Winter.
China ignores the ruling:
Manila said Beijing continues to send maritime militia to Mischief Reef and Scarborough Shoal, within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. In the southern part of the sea is the Spratly archipelago chain, which Beijing calls the Nansha archipelago. The archipelago consists of 100 islets and reefs, 45 of which are occupied by China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam or the Philippines.
In the northwest of the sea, the Paracel Islands – known in China as the Xisha Islands – have been controlled by Beijing since 1974 despite claims by Vietnam and Taiwan.
China’s ruling Communist Party also claims autonomy over Taiwan as its own territory, although it has never controlled the region.
China has built the world’s largest naval fleet with more than 340 warships and until recently was considered a blue-water navy, operating mainly near its coast. But Beijing’s shipbuilding reveals its maritime ambitions. In recent years, the country has launched large guided-missile destroyers, amphibious assault ships and aircraft carriers capable of operating on the high seas and projecting power thousands of miles away from Beijing. thousand kilometers.
Additionally, Western maritime security experts – as well as the Philippines and the United States – say China controls hundreds of powerful maritime militias and operates as an unofficial force – and could officially denied – which Beijing uses to assert its territorial claims also in the South China Sea. East Sea and beyond.
The United States has no claim to the South China Sea, but says the waters are vital to its national interest in ensuring freedom of seas around the world.
The US Navy regularly conducts freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea, saying the US “protects the right of every nation to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law “Economy allows”.
Beijing denounces such activities as illegal. Much of Beijing’s military buildup is concentrated along the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos, where ongoing land reclamation has led to the destruction of coral reefs and subsequent construction of them.
Chinese ships are known to have circumnavigated various atolls and islets, dispatching dredgers to construct artificial islands large enough to accommodate tankers and warships.
“Over the past decade, China has added more than 3,200 acres of land to its seven occupied outposts in the Spratly Islands, which now include airfields, harbor areas and supply facilities to support the China’s continued military and paramilitary presence in the region. » Lindsey Ford, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense, told a House subcommittee earlier this week, referring to China by its official acronym, People’s Republic of China.