10-Point Guide To The South China Sea Dispute

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei make competing claims to territory in the South China Sea, a 3.5 million sq km area with some of the world's most promising oil and gas fields and vital fishing grounds.

China's increased military assertiveness - it has built artificial islands and conducts patrols and military exercises in the area - has had  its smaller neighbours worried. It has also led to a confrontation with the United States.

The US has backed those against China and has built up military presence in the region to ensure, it says, access to critical shipping and air routes. Both the US and China have accused each other of provocations in the region as recently as last month.

China has been very active in the region in recent months installing missile launchers, radars and other military equipment, apart from pouring sand on coral reefs to build artificial islands.

The case brought by the Philippines in 2013 challenges China's so-called "nine-dash line", a boundary that is the basis for its claim to roughly 85 percent of the South China Sea.

It hinges on the legal status of reefs, rocks and artificial islands in the Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Island Group in the south China Sea, contesting China's control.

Manila argues that the Spratlys and the Scarborough Shoal, a scattering of rocks off the coast of the Philippines' Luzon island, are within its territory.  

Beijing says it has had rights to the territories for centuries, a claim also contested by Vietnam which says it has controlled the Spratlys and another chain of islands called the Paracel for many years. Taiwan too claims  those islands.   

China has boycotted the hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, saying it does not have jurisdiction to decide on the matter.

The court cannot enforce its decision but its ruling could embolden Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei to file similar cases.