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1 1 (December 19, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govejvx0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Ba Inforrning the legiltive diel sarch Servic Updated December 19, 2022 China Primer: South China Sea Disputes Overview Multiple Asian governments assert sovereignty over rocks, reefs, and other geographic features in the heavily trafficked South China Sea (SCS), with the People's Republic of China (PRC or China) arguably making the most assertive claims. The United States makes no territorial claim in the SCS and takes no position on sovereignty over any of the geographic features in the SCS, but has urged that disputes be settled without coercion and on the basis of international law. Separate from the sovereignty disputes, the United States and China disagree over what rights international law grants foreign militaries to fly, sail, and operate in a country's territorial sea or Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Since 2013, the sovereignty disputes and the U.S.-China dispute over freedom of the seas for military ships and aircraft have converged in the controversy over military outposts China has built on disputed features in the SCS. Observers viewed the military outposts as part of a PRC effort to project military power eastward from its coast and contest U.S. military supremacy in maritime East Asia. Much of China's military modernization is aimed at developing capabilities to deter or defeat third-party intervention in a regional military conflict. (For more on China's military, see CRS In Focus IF11719, China Primer: The People's Liberation Army (PLA), by Caitlin Campbell.) Observers have been alert to other actions China might take to dominate the SCS, including initiating reclamation on another SCS geographic feature, such as Scarborough Shoal, or declaring an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over parts of the SCS. The last several Congresses have focused on China's efforts to use coercion and intimidation to increase its influence, including in the SCS, and passed legislation aimed at improving the ability of the United States and its partners to protect their interests and freedom of navigation and oversight. Key Facts The SCS is one of the world's most heavily trafficked waterways. An estimated $3.4 trillion in ship-borne commerce transits the sea each year, including energy supplies to U.S. treaty allies Japan and South Korea. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the SCS contains about 11 billion barrels of oil rated as proved or probable reserves-a level similar to the amount of proved oil reserves in Mexico-and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The SCS also contains significant fish stocks, coral, and other undersea resources. The Sovergnty Disputes China asserts indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters without defining the scope of its adjacent waters claim. On maps, China depicts its claims with a nine-dash line (see Figure 1) that, if connected, would enclose an area covering approximately 62% of the sea, according to the U.S. Department of State. (The estimate is based on a definition of the SCS's geographic limits that includes the Taiwan Strait, the Gulf of Tonkin, and the Natuna Sea.) China has never explained definitively what the dashed line signifies. Figure I. The South China Sea -hin s Nme-Dash Lin& I l aentonve been enlarged for Source: CRS graphic. In the northern part of the SCS, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam contest sovereignty of the Paracel Islands; China has occupied them since 1974. In the southern part of the sea, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam claim all of the approximately 200 Spratly Islands, while Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, claim some of them. Vietnam controls the greatest number. In the eastern part of the sea, China, Taiwan, and the Philippines all claim Scarborough Shoal; China has controlled it since 2012. China's nine-dash line and Taiwan's similar eleven-dash line overlap with the theoretical 200-nautical-mile (nm) EEZs that five Southeast Asian nations-Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam-could claim from their mainland coasts under the 1994 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Indonesia disputes China's assertions of maritime rights near its coast. Dispute over Freedom of the Seas A dispute over how to interpret UNCLOS lies at the heart of tensions between China and the United States over the activities of U.S. military vessels and planes in and over the SCS and other waters off China's coast. The United States and most other countries interpret UNCLOS as giving coastal states the right to regulate economic activities

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