South China Sea dispute

Chinese warships, fighter jets and submarines are holding live-fire war games in the South China Sea, ahead of The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration’s verdict on Tuesday on the South China Sea.

The South China Sea is bordered by Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Competing claims of territorial sovereignty over islands and smaller features in the South China Sea have been a longstanding source of tension and distrust in the region.

It is a dispute over territory and sovereignty over ocean areas, and the Paracels and the Spratlys - two island chains claimed in whole or in part by a number of countries. There are also dozens of rocky outcrops, atolls, sandbanks and reefs, such as the Scarborough Shoal. Paracels and Spratlys may have reserves of natural resources around them. There has been little detailed exploration of the area.

The sea is also a major shipping route and home to fishing grounds that supply the livelihoods of people across the region. China claims by far the largest portion of territory - an area defined by the ‘nine-dash line’, which stretches hundreds of miles south and east from its most southerly province of Hainan. Beijing says its right to the area goes back centuries to when the Paracel and Spratly island chains were regarded as integral parts of the Chinese nation, and in 1947 it issued a map detailing its claims.

It showed the two island groups falling entirely within its territory. Those claims are mirrored by Taiwan. Vietnam hotly disputes China’s historical account, saying China had never claimed sovereignty over the islands before the 1940s. Vietnam says it has actively ruled over both the Paracels and the Spratlys since the 17th Century.

The Philippines invokes its geographical proximity to the Spratly Islands as the main basis of its claim for part of the grouping. Both the Philippines and China lay claim to the Scarborough Shoal.

Malaysia and Brunei also lay claim to territory in the South China Sea that they say falls within their economic exclusion zones, as defined by UNCLOS - the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Brunei does not claim any of the disputed islands, but Malaysia claims a small number of islands in the Spratlys. (Courtesy BBC)