BACKGROUND TO THE CLAIMS

The South China Sea (SCS) disputes refer to competing territorial and jurisdictional claims over four groups of islands, reefs, and atolls (Paracels, Spratlys, Macclesfield Bank, and Pratas), along with their surrounding waters, lying strategically between China and Southeast Asia. The claimants include China and Taiwan who are believed to claim the entire South China Sea area, and Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei whose claims are more limited to certain features and areas. The SCS is strategically important for various reasons, among them the fact that critical sea-lanes traverse the waters, linking northeast Asia and the western Pacific to the Indian Ocean and the Middle East. More than half the world's shipping tonnage reportedly sails through the South China Sea each year, including more than 80 per cent of the oil destined for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

The disputes, particularly those over the Spratly Islands, are considered one of the most complex territorial disputes because there are at least three, but potentially as many as six, claimants to different parts of the area, and not all the claimants have clearly delineated their claims nor fully articulated their grounds for such. Moreover, there is a range of interests at stake for the different parties, including the potential for oil and natural gas deposits in the seabed, access to rich fishing grounds, strategic control of the sealanes, security from external threats, and even protection of the immediate marine environment. The patterns of occupation and military presence in the disputed areas — with Vietnam now occupying the largest number of features in the Spratlys at more than 22, China 14, the Philippines 11, Malaysia 10, Taiwan 1 (the largest feature — Itu Aba), and Brunei none2 — make it nearly impossible to seek a solution based on physical division of the multiple claim areas. Except for a few islands which have been converted into civilian facilities by Taiwan and Malaysia, the rest are occupied by military troops. Armed clashes took place between China and Vietnam in the Paracels in 1974 and in the Spratlys in 1988.