The South China Sea

China claims the islands, reefs and most of the water of the South China Sea inside a line it first drew on a map in 1947. The line runs close to the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam, each of which claims part of the same sea under the law of the sea convention, as does Taiwan. An international tribunal ruled in 2016 that the line has no legal basis. China rejected the ruling and has since built military bases on seven reefs. The present confrontation is mostly with the Philippines, at two shoals inside its economic zone, and is conducted with coast guard ships, water cannon and fishing fleets so far, not with guns. The Philippines has a defence treaty with the United States.

Where it stands · September 2026

On 18 September 2026 a China Coast Guard ship rammed a Philippine BFAR vessel off Palawan, according to the Philippine Coast Guard. On 25 September the Philippines accused China of obstructing a resupply mission in the South China Sea. On 27 September the United States backed the Philippines over the Ayungin Shoal resupply incident and criticized China's interference. The same day the PLA Southern Theater Command conducted a joint naval-air exercise around Huangyan Dao. On 30 September the PLA conducted combat readiness patrols around Huangyan Dao.

What the dispute is about

Title to the land. China, Taiwan and Vietnam each claim all of the Paracel and Spratly islands on historical grounds. The Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim the parts nearest them. No court has ruled on who owns any island, and none can without the parties' consent.

Rights in the water. The 2016 tribunal ruled that whatever the truth about the islands, none of the Spratlys is large enough to generate an economic zone, that China's claim to historic rights inside its line was extinguished by the convention it signed, and that the shoals being fought over lie in the Philippine zone.

Passage. About a third of world shipping crosses the sea. The United States takes no side on the islands and sails warships past the Chinese bases to contest what it calls excessive claims.

How each side explains it

Beijing's account

Chinese fishermen and officials have used and administered these islands for two thousand years, and China recovered them from Japan in 1945 without objection from anyone. The 2016 arbitration was brought unilaterally, dealt with sovereignty in disguise, and is null and void. The Philippines has broken its promises, grounded a warship on Chinese territory, and stages provocations for the cameras with American encouragement. China's coast guard enforces the law in its own waters with restraint. The disputes should be settled by the countries directly concerned, and the code of conduct will show that Asians can manage the sea without outsiders.

In our coverage

Taiwan, the SCS and the Senkakus are Chinese territory; foreign interference provokes →162 headlines
Covered by:Global Times · CGTN · China Daily · People's Daily

Manila's account

The shoals are well inside two hundred nautical miles of the Philippine coast and hundreds of miles from China's. A tribunal constituted under a convention China ratified confirmed that, and the award is final. Philippine fishermen are driven from waters their families have fished for generations. Supply boats to Philippine troops are rammed and hosed, and sailors have been injured. The Philippines publishes what happens because silence was tried for six years and China kept advancing. It will not give up a square inch.

What each account leaves out

Beijing's leaves out that it ratified the convention whose compulsory arbitration it refuses; that its leader promised in 2015 not to militarise the islands, which now carry runways, radar and missiles; that the tribunal found it had destroyed coral reefs on a large scale; and that its maritime militia and coast guard operate off the coasts of Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam as well, where no American encouragement is alleged.

Manila's leaves out that the grounding of the Sierra Madre in 1999 was itself a way of occupying a shoal without admitting it; that Philippine policy has reversed with each president, from lawsuit to accommodation to confrontation; and that the country's own claim to part of the Spratlys dates from a private adventurer's declaration in 1956.

Washington's and its allies' leaves out that the United States has never ratified the convention it invokes; that Vietnam and others have also built on reefs the tribunal said generate no rights, without American protest; and that it has left deliberately unclear what Chinese action short of gunfire would bring the treaty into effect.

The other claimants' leaves out that their silence leaves the Philippines to carry the legal argument from which they all benefit, and that the code of conduct they wait for has been under negotiation for twenty-four years while the facts at sea changed.

The ledger

China

Wanted: control of the sea inside its line.
Gained: seven bases, Scarborough Shoal, and the daily presence that makes its claim a fact.
Paid: a legal defeat it cannot reverse, and neighbours arming and aligning against it.

The Philippines

Wanted: its ruling enforced.
Gained: allies, attention and the moral argument.
Paid: no access to Scarborough Shoal since 2012, and an outpost that can only be supplied with China's tolerance.

Vietnam

Gained: new land on its reefs while attention was elsewhere.

Words in dispute

Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.

Huangyan Dao / Scarborough Shoal / Bajo de Masinloc
Ren'ai Jiao / Second Thomas Shoal / Ayungin
South China Sea / West Philippine Sea / East Sea
nine-dash line
null and void / final and binding
freedom of navigation / provocation
law enforcement / grey-zone coercion

Events per week

Per-week distribution of events. Click a bar to see that week's top events.

Click a week bar to select. Light blue = active week.

Week of Sep 28, 2026(11)

PCG drives Chinese research vessel away from position off Batanes

2 sourcesOct 1, 2026

PLA conducts combat readiness patrols around Huangyan Dao - news.cgtn.com

3 sourcesSep 30, 2026

PCG slams China’s obstruction of dynamite fishing probe near Pag-asa

1 sourcesOct 4, 2026

Philippines accuses Chinese coast guard of blocking law enforcement mission near Thitu

1 sourcesOct 4, 2026

Chinese work gathering pace on Antelope Reef in South China Sea

1 sourcesOct 3, 2026

A halted resupply run by Philippines, a grounded warship and the decades-old dispute over the South China Sea | HT Explainers

1 sourcesOct 3, 2026

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese work gathering pace on Antelope Reef in South China Sea, latest satellite images show

1 sourcesOct 2, 2026

PCG shadows Chinese research ship, escorts near outer EEZ off Luzon

1 sourcesOct 2, 2026

Philippines hits back at China at UN, defends 2016 South China Sea arbitral award

1 sourcesOct 1, 2026

Dongshan Precision Is Said to Target Up to $3 Billion HK Listing

1 sourcesSep 29, 2026

+1 more this week