The South China Sea dispute centers on the sovereignty over the Nansha Islands, a network of islands that stretches 1,000 km from north to south in the southeastern corner of the sea. China was the first country to discover and name the islands. It was also the first to exercise sovereignty over them and has maintained that sovereignty for hundreds of years. The dispute did not erupt until the early 1970s, after a UN exploration in 1969 showed the South China Sea may be one of the most oil-rich and natural gas-heavy regions in the world. Read More