ABSTRACT
In the last chapter, the emphasis of the discussion was on the relationship between China's geopolitical interests in the region, and how that affected its pOlicy towards the disputes with the Philippines and Malaysia over parts of the Spratlys. As discussed in Chapter 5 dealing with China's policy towards the dispute with vietnam over the Paracel and Spratly Islands, its growing offshore oil interests in the South China Sea began to play an increasingly important role during the early 1980s. It is logical to expect that such interests would also have had a growing influence on China's pol icy towards the disputes with the Philippines and Malaysia. It is the major task of the present chapter to enquire in what way such interests may have affected its policy.
