The South China Sea

Islands nobody lived on

The Paracels are about 130 small coral islands and reefs with no fresh water and no permanent residents, about 400 km east of central Vietnam.^[2] The Spratlys, between Vietnam and the Philippines, are a much larger scatter of reefs, atolls and islets, many of them underwater.^[1] Their strategic position mattered first; since about 1970 their possible resources have mattered more.^[1]

French Indochina annexed the Paracels in 1932 and put a weather station there. After the Second World War, Chinese troops occupied Woody Island by 1947, while the French, and then Vietnam, kept the weather station on another island.^[2] Early in 1974, after South Vietnam signed contracts with foreign oil companies, China attacked by sea and air and took control of the whole group.^[2]

The Spratlys: garrisons and new islands

By the late 20th century Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines all claimed the Spratlys in whole or part, most with garrisons on various features. Brunei claimed no islands but declared a zone that includes one reef.^[1] China says its claim goes back centuries and covers almost the whole South China Sea.^[1]

China first took a position in the Spratlys in 1988, when its forces removed a Vietnamese garrison from Johnson South Reef. From early 2014 it began piling up artificial land on reefs it held, and in October 2015 the United States sent a warship through the area.^[1]

The 2016 award

In January 2013 the Philippines took China to arbitration under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. China refused to take part.^[3] The tribunal said it would not decide who owns any island or draw any boundary; it ruled only on what rights the sea features create and on China’s conduct.^[3]

In its award of 12 July 2016 it found no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources in the waters inside its “nine-dash line”. It also found that none of the Spratlys can generate a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, because none can naturally sustain a stable community. It ruled that China had violated the Philippines’ rights in its own zone, including by building artificial islands, and that fishermen from both countries have traditional rights at Scarborough Shoal.^[3]

“The Tribunal concluded that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line’.”^[3]

Second Thomas Shoal

The Philippines keeps personnel on the Sierra Madre, a Second World War landing ship grounded on Second Thomas Shoal. From 2022 Chinese and Philippine vessels clashed around it with dangerous manoeuvres, rammings and water cannon, ending in a violent confrontation on 17 June 2024.^[4]

The two sides then reached an undisclosed provisional arrangement that let the Philippines resupply the ship. On 24 September 2026 Chinese coast-guard vessels and warships blocked a resupply mission for the first time since that deal; China’s state media said the Philippines had not asked for approval, which Manila denies is required.^[4]