Territorial disputes in the South China Sea

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea involve conflicting island and maritime claims in the South China Sea by several sovereign states, namely the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan (Republic of China/ROC), Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. The disputes involve the islands, reefs, banks, and other features of the region, including the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands, Scarborough Shoal, and various boundaries in the Gulf of Tonkin. The waters near the Indonesian Natuna Islands, which some regard as geographically part of the South China Sea, are disputed as well.

An estimated US$3.37 trillion worth of global trade passes through the South China Sea annually,^[1] which accounts for a third of the global maritime trade.^[2] 80 percent of China's energy imports and 39.5 percent of China's total trade passes through the South China Sea.^[1] Claimant states are interested in retaining or acquiring the rights to fishing stocks, the exploration and potential exploitation of crude oil and natural gas in the seabed of various parts of the South China Sea, and the strategic control of important shipping lanes. Maritime security is also an issue, as the ongoing disputes present challenges for shipping.^[3]

In 1932, France formally claimed both the Paracel and Spratly Islands.^[4] China and Japan both protested. On 6 April 1933, France occupied the Spratlys, announced their annexation, and formally included them in French Indochina.^[5][6]

In 1947, the Republic of China, the government of then China, announced the majority of the South China Sea was its territory with a so-called eleven-dash line. In 1949, the incoming government of China, which overthrew the Republic of China in the Chinese Civil War, announced that it had inherited this claim. The PRC later removed two of its dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin amidst warming ties with Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnam^[7][8] However, the Taiwanese (ROC) government continues to use the eleven-dash line to this day.^[9][10]

In 2013, the PRC began island building in the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands region.^[11] During a US Senate hearing in May 2015, then US Assistant Secretary of Defence, David Shear reported that in the Spratly Islands, Vietnam had established 48 outposts, the Philippines had eight, China had eight, Malaysia had five, and Taiwan had one. Shear also noted that from 2009 to 2014, Vietnam was the most active claimant in terms of both upgrading outposts and reclaiming land, with approximately 60 acres reclaimed.^[12][13] According to Reuters, island building in the South China Sea, primarily by Vietnam and the Philippines, had been going on for decades. And Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines have all deployed military forces on some of their islands, but Vietnam has not stationed any troops on its floating artificial islands. While China had been late to the island-building game, its efforts had been on an unprecedented scale; from 2014 to 2016, it had constructed more new island surface than all other nations have constructed throughout history and (unlike the other claimants) had placed military equipment, at least for a brief period, on one of its artificial islands by 2016.^[14] Also, a 2019 report from VOA that compared China and Vietnam's island building campaign in the South China Sea stated that the reason why Vietnam had been subject to little international criticism or support was because of the slower speed and widely perceived defensive nature of its island-building project.^[15]

China's actions in the South China Sea have been described as part of its "salami slicing"/"cabbage wrapping" strategies.^[16][17] Since 2015, the United States and other states such as France and the United Kingdom have conducted freedom of navigation operations (FONOP) in the region.^[18] In July 2016, an arbitration tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) ruled against the PRC's maritime claims in the South China Sea Arbitration.^[19] The tribunal did not rule on the ownership of the islands or delimit maritime boundaries.^[20][8] Both the People's Republic of China and Taiwan stated that they did not recognize the tribunal and insisted that the matter should be resolved through bilateral negotiations with other claimants.^[21] In January 2022, the United States Department of State called China's claims in the South China Sea "unlawful."^[22]