Interactive | Multimedia special: 70 years of construction, conflict and combat on the South China Sea

Ahead of the Hague ruling on July 12, the SCMP explores what’s at stake in the disputed zone ... and who controls what

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A Chinese soldier takes aim during a military drill in the South China Sea. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 2:30pm, 30 Jun 2016Updated: 6:36pm, 6 Jul 2016

Known in China 1,400 years ago as the “boil sea”, the South China Sea turned into a regional cauldron in 2014 when Beijing started massive land reclamation projects.

Conflict in the disputed zone is often depicted as a contest for resources, but a multimedia package prepared by the South China Morning Post shows the situation is more complex, with nationalism and militarism also playing roles.

The package details the different names used by the six claimants for the maritime features – islands, reefs and shoals – in the South China Sea and their current status, as well as detailing the scale of Beijing’s massive construction projects in the disputed waters and the sometimes bloody history of those disputes.

Conflicting claims: South China Sea multimedia special

Tensions in the contested waters continued to escalate in late 2015 when the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled it had jurisdiction in a case filed by the Philippines against mainland China. The court announced on Wednesday that it will hand down its rulings on July 12.

The Philippines’ case focuses on Beijing’s claim to “historic rights” in the roughly 2 million sq km of the South China Sea encompassed by its controversial “nine-dash line” – close to 60 per cent of the energy-rich waters, through which more than US$5 trillion of maritime trade passes each year.