May 6, 2016

"The South China Sea is a huge sea of 1.4 million square miles, bordered by nations that contain approximately 2 billion people. About a third of the world’s shipping goes through its waters, which also provide vast amounts of food and whose seabed is rich in oil and gas. Scattered through the sea are small land features—often tiny, often underwater during high tide. These fall into two main groupings: the Paracel Islands in the northern part of the sea, and the Spratly Islands in the southern part. China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, and Malaysia all claim sovereignty over some of these land features and waters, and the claims conflict. 

China, through its 'nine-dash line' map and many statements, has claimed at the very least sovereignty over all the islands and rocks in the South China Sea and rights over the adjacent waters. The other five stakeholders have conflicting claims over land features that in turn produce numerous additional overlapping and conflicting claims over adjacent waters and how they are used. Neither the vastness of the sea nor the smallness of the disputed land specks has prevented an escalation in intensity in recent years. Concerns about security and resources have driven much of the tension, and rival nationalisms in stakeholder countries breath fire on the waters."

Read more:

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2016/05/06-limits-of-law-south-china-sea-gewirtz