South China Sea was a peaceful area but in recent years the peace is broken. As there are energy and resources, neighboring countries fight for them and claim sovereignty over the sea on the base of United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In this paper, the claims by China, Vietnam and Philippines will be discussed and the conflicts among the three countries will be illustrated. Vietnam, as the ‘friend’ and ‘comrade’ of China, cooperates with China on economy but occupies the most islands in South China Sea; and Philippines, as an ally of United States, unilaterally initiated arbitration trying to internationalize the disputes, but now it began to repair bilateral relation with China by cooperating with China on economy.
United States, the ‘world police’, intervenes in those disputes by the form of freedom of navigation program, also with the excuse of United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Although there are other ‘internal’ or ‘external’ countries that have disputes with China in South China Sea, the above three countries are more representative.
China claims its sovereignty in South China Sea by the reason of historic title and processes land reclamation, but faces lots of challenges from the three countries.
What challenges does China have in South China Sea with United States’ intervention? It is worth studying.