DUTTON Peter <br/><br/>
China undermines maritime laws/ 
Peter Dutton 
 -  2009 
<br/><br/> Beijing focuses on its maritime territorial disputes with weaker neighbors over island and shoals that might sit  atop vast petroleum or gas reserves.  The South China Sea is the subject of competing territorial claims that have proliferated since discovery of potentially rich undersea resources in the 1970s.  The disputes intensified after the creation of the United Nations convention of the law of the sea 1982.  China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines all actively contest sovereignty over some or all of the islands in South China Sea. 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>CHINA -- MARITIME -- LAWS<br/>BRUNEI<br/>MALAYSIA<br/>VIETNAM<br/>PHILIPPINES<br/>TAIWAN<br/>MARITIME