ABSTRACT
The South China Sea is often regarded as one of the three major flashpoints in East Asia (the other two being the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait). The Sea’s flashpoint was most recently highlighted by the Hainan Island Incident of April 2001 when a Chinese fighter collided with a United States Navy (USN) surveillance EP-3 aircraft.1 The South China Sea has key strategic importance both in terms of the sea lanes of communication (SLOCs) that criss-cross the body of water and the natural resources it contains.
