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The South China Sea Dispute
Extending from Singapore and the Strait of Malacca in the southwest to the Strait of Taiwan in the northeast, the South China Sea is a geopolitical hotspot as one of the most important trade routes in the world, not to mention the home of valuable oil and gas reserves as well as lucrative fishing grounds.
Apart from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei have overlapping claims in the South China Sea. The navies of China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States have all periodically and irrationally tried to assert themselves in the South China Sea, sometimes with very little (or no) cause.
Issues in the South China Sea
For those not familiar with the history of the region, let me give you a short history of the South China Sea disputes:
In 1784, Spain, the first European country to claim sovereignty over parts of the region, established two trading posts on the Spratly Islands, raising the ire of other countries that felt that Spanish claims to the Spratlys were illegitimate.
