The South China Sea region is a critical world trade route with major territorial disputes. We will be hearing more and more about conflicts in this region in the coming decades. Today 1/3 of all world shipping traffic including 50% of the world's oil and gas trade run through the South China Sea. It is the "middleman" between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, South Asia and East Asia the world's largest population clusters.
China contends that all of the South China Sea belongs to it based on an original "nine dash line" (same as red line below) on a map first published in 1947. But it not made any formal claims. China has sent its navy to patrol isalnds several times but now recently has begun building new islands. They do this using dredging vessels which dig up sediment from the sea and then hose it on top of existing coral reefs to make islands. The goal is to claim the areas of sea that surround the islands. (see image below)
In the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) a country typically gets 200 miles of sea off its coast, even if just the coast of a tiny island. This region 200-mile region is called its EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone, blue lines below) but China is claiming much more than that (red line) including a large chunk of the EEZs of Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia. In the news there are frequent protests, conflicts and developments including just today a story about China building a runway in contested area.
China building runway in disputed South China Sea island
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32331964
In addition to shipping routes, the South China Sea is believed to hold huge seafloor oil and natural gas deposits. China is scouring the globe for resources to fuel its enormous population and claiming just a dozen tiny specks of land in the sea could open up huge oil and gas resources.
As it stands the South China Sea will continue to be a major hotspot of conflict for decades in this highly fragemented part of the world.
Chinese dredging vessel hosing sediment to make a new island
China contends that all of the South China Sea belongs to it based on an original "nine dash line" (same as red line below) on a map first published in 1947. But it not made any formal claims. China has sent its navy to patrol isalnds several times but now recently has begun building new islands. They do this using dredging vessels which dig up sediment from the sea and then hose it on top of existing coral reefs to make islands. The goal is to claim the areas of sea that surround the islands. (see image below)
In the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) a country typically gets 200 miles of sea off its coast, even if just the coast of a tiny island. This region 200-mile region is called its EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone, blue lines below) but China is claiming much more than that (red line) including a large chunk of the EEZs of Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia. In the news there are frequent protests, conflicts and developments including just today a story about China building a runway in contested area.
China building runway in disputed South China Sea island
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32331964
In addition to shipping routes, the South China Sea is believed to hold huge seafloor oil and natural gas deposits. China is scouring the globe for resources to fuel its enormous population and claiming just a dozen tiny specks of land in the sea could open up huge oil and gas resources.
As it stands the South China Sea will continue to be a major hotspot of conflict for decades in this highly fragemented part of the world.
Chinese dredging vessel hosing sediment to make a new island
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