Standoff at Scarborough Shoal

The South China Sea is a strategically important and resource-rich area in Asia. Around half of the world's merchant fleets pass through every year carrying an estimated $5 trillion worth of trade. The area is also believed to contain valuable oil and gas deposits. And ownership is hotly contested. There are ongoing territorial disputes between Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and China. One of the most well-known is the Spratly Islands' hydrocarbon deposits valued at $26.3 trillion. The latest tension is at the Scarborough Shoal, a small cluster of uninhabitable islands which lies about 220km off the coast of the Philippines and falls under its exclusive economic zone according to international maritime law. But China also claims ownership despite its nearest coastline being 900km away. The Scarborough Shoal has valuable resources including fishing, shipping routes and potentially enormous oil and gas deposits.