ntinue to pursue its goals in the SCS. Coupled with a cooling of diplomatic relations with Washington, China’s actions make it increasingly difficult to envision a multilateral solution being agreed upon and raise questions over the consequences that Chinese hegemony in the SCS would have for the notion of a rules-based international order. By delving into the context of China’s claim to sovereignty, providing an analysis of its actions, including the reclamation and militarization of islands, as well as the diplomatic approaches it has taken to impose its claim, and finally evaluating its actions and the consequences they have on the imposition and legitimacy of international law, this paper seeks to gain a detailed understanding of the situation in the SCS and provide knowledgeable insight as to where the ongoing developments may lead.

Background to China’s Claim:

Stretching from the Karimata and Malacca Straits in the southwest to the Strait of Taiwan in northeast, the South China Sea (SCS) forms the maritime borders of eight different states and territories (International Hydrographic Organization 1953). The waters have two main clusters of islands: the Paracel Islands in the northwest, and the Spratly Islands in the southeast. Other significant landforms include the Scarlborough Shoal off the western coast of Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines (Hayton 2016) . The Paracel Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, while the Spratly Islands are contested by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Scarlborough Shoal has been a key point of conflict between China and the Philippines after China’s de facto seizure in 2012, as well as multiple disputes with Filipino fishermen and Chinese interference with official survey (Storey 2016).

There are a range of motivations behind the various claims in the SCS. Being home to some of the most important trading routes in the world, the SCS accounted for the transportation of 21 percent of global maritime trade in 2016. The large quantity of goods transported make the sea crucial for many of the world’s largest economies (China Power Team 2017). Maintaining these transit routes or sea lines of communication (SLOCs) are essential to provide for energy and consumer demands and failure to do so would result in ships having to circumnavigate the region, lead huge costs for the world economy. For China itself, the sea is also crucial. Nearly 40 percent of China’s trade transits the SCS, making it the country’s most significant trade route by far. Two crucial goods make the transit routes even more important: natural gas and oil. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, over half of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade and almost a third of global crude oil passes through the SCS. These figur