Why US-China Tensions Are Growing in the South China Sea

For decades, the US has guaranteed freedom of navigation in Asia’s waters, patrolling the seas with a view to maintaining the principle that no sovereign state shall suffer interference from another. China is increasingly challenging that status quo, using its growing military power to press long-standing territorial claims. So Washington is moving to reshape its decades-old regional alliances to keep Beijing’s ambitions in check. The tensions are most visible around Taiwan and in the South China Sea.

Stretching from China in the north to Indonesia in the south, the waterway encompasses 1.4 million square miles (3.6 million square kilometers), making it bigger than the Mediterranean Sea. To the west it touches Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, and the Philippines and Brunei to the east. It’s a thriving fishing zone — yielding some 10% of the global catch — and holds promising oil and natural gas reserves. A vast amount of trade transits through its waters. In 2016, that amounted to some $3 trillion, including more than 30% of the global maritime crude oil trade.