South China Sea has lots of fish and probably oil

Strategically important: The Spratly Islands are a motley collection of 100 small islands and reefs smack in the waters of South China Sea.

PETALING JAYA: The South China Sea is ranked as one of the world’s most strategically important maritime locations, and also one of the most hotly contested.

A whopping US$5tril in trade flows through the waterways each year, representing a third of global maritime trade commerce.

Smack in the waters of South China Sea lies a motley collection of 100 small islands and reefs, spread over 425,000sq km.

China calls this archipelago the Nansha Islands, but five other countries disputing China’s claim – and the rest of the world – know this arid, inhabitable space as the Spratly Islands.

It may be perplexing as to why the area is being contested by the governments of six different nations, but the Spratlys more than make up for its inhabitability with its vast natural resources.

South China Sea is teeming with at least one-tenth of the world’s fishing stock and supposedly holds significant natural reserves.

It is no surprise that the Spratly chain and the South China Sea are also claimed in part or whole by Malaysia, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei.

Malaysia’s claim is based on what falls within its economic exclusion zones, as defined by UNCLOS – the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

It comprises three islands that it considers within its continental shelf, namely Ardasier Reef (Terumbu Ubi), Mariveles Reef (Terumbu Mantanani) and Swallow Reef (Terumbu Layang).

Malaysia also maintains a naval base in Pulau Layang-Layang which is part of the chain.

Vietnam claims it has actively ruled over the Spratlys and its neighbouring island chain, the Paracels, since the 17th century, and has documents to prove it.

The Philippines invokes its geographical proximity to the Spratly Islands as the main basis of its claim for part of the archipelago.

China is claiming more than 90% of the South China Sea as its own, using the “nine-dash line” to demarcate its boundary on maps, overlapping the exclusive economic zones of Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.

The “nine-dash line” covers some 2,000km from the Chinese mainland to within a few hundred kilometres of Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, serving as the basis of China’s claim to “historical rights” in the region.

Some countries have claimed the “nine-dash line” has no coordinates, and that China has not clarified if it only claims land territory within the line or the territorial waters as well.

Conflicts over the South China Sea have brewed for decades, but heightened in more recent years with China’s expansion and militarisation activities, when it added airfields, ports and lighthouses to seven islands and reefs.

Last month, China announced plans to offer its first regular civilian cruise to the Spratly Islands by 2020 from Hainan province and also plans for Maldives-style resorts there, along with a cruise line covering countries along the Maritime Silk Road.