Beijing's move to set up a military garrison on disputed Yongxing Island—claimed by the Philippines as part of the Paracel chain—is escalating tension in the South China Sea (or, as Manila has it, the West Philippine Sea), which has emerged as the key theater in Washington's new cold war with Beijing. As the US and the People's Republic get into a diplomatic spat over the issue, India's Institue for Defence Studies and Analyses (linked to New Delhi's Defense Ministry) sees a resource grab as the agenda behind China's move, exploiting terms of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to establish control over offshore oil resources.
Map via IDSA [1]
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