A diversidade dos interesses geopolíticos no Mar do Sul da China

Resumo

The South China Sea is some sort of connection between the Western Pacific and Indian oceans, being an area of huge economic importance, in which global naval routes intersect. In this area are the navigable coasts of Eurasia, cropped by the Straits of Malacca, Sunda, Lombok and Makassar. In this way, more than half of the tonnage of the world merchant marine and 1/3 from all over the world maritime trade, circulate through these Straits. In addition, the Spratly Islands are claimed, in their entirety by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and partly by Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei. Therefore, the control of the South China Sea is one of the oldest and most important geopolitical conflicts in the East Asia, since the six countries above mentioned dispute for centuries the sovereignty over various parts of a territory which is key to the world shipping traffic, especially oil tankers.