ABSTRACT
The situation in the South China Sea underwent great changes in 2009. Malaysia occupied Danwan Jiao in early June 1983, when the Five Power Defence Arrangements held a weeklong naval exercise, Starfish, in the South China Sea, involving about 18 vessels, 16 aircraft and 3,000 military personnel from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Singapore. In addition, none of these disputed islands in the South China Sea are geographical extensions of any country's continental shelf. The analysis presented in this chapter shows that Malaysia's claims to certain islands and reefs of the Nansha Islands on the basis of the continental shelf are not legally grounded. The two cases mentioned here have aroused strong repercussions among countries with island disputes in the South China Sea, prompting them to further strengthen the actual and continuous jurisdiction over the occupied islands.
