South China Sea proving to be turbulent waters

to have been involved in every single alterca- tion. As a world superpower, China is willing to“fight” the nations who also claim to have control of the islands.

Specifically, China asserts that it has the right to control the largest territory, extend- ing from the province of Hainan hundreds of miles south and east. On the other hand, Vietnam fiercely defends that China has never had sovereignty over the islands before the 1940s, and that it originally controlled over the region since the 17th century. Moreover, the Philippines declares that the islands are the closest to its nation, thus it must be their territory. Unfortunately, another altercation, between China and the Philippines, is a dis- agreement over the Scarborough Shoal. Last but not least, Brunei and Malaysia believe that the islands belong to them because they are within their economic exclusion zones.

On a final note, it is clearly evident to this day that if this issue can’ t be solved, more is-sues will spring up causing major havoc in Asia.

The United Nations was obviously created to pre-serve international peace. The conflict in the SouthChina Sea has finally cap-tured the attention of the United Nations. Because the“ claims” that China has made angered many Asian countries, the Phil-ippines decided to file a case against China in 2013 through the United Na-tions Permanent Court of Arbitration. This committee finally decided that they will proceed to hear out the case, which will definitely change the outcome of who will take control of the area. Moreover, the continuing altercations that China has provoked multiple times force the Philippines to seek help from the United Nations Con- vention on Law of the Sea. The UNCLOS’ conventions have come to an end in 1982, but fully came to force in 1994. There have been 3 conferences so far, and finally came to an agreement in 1994.