TY - BOOK AU - DUTTON Peter TI - China undermines maritime laws PY - 2009/// KW - CHINA KW - MARITIME KW - LAWS KW - BRUNEI KW - MALAYSIA KW - VIETNAM KW - PHILIPPINES KW - TAIWAN KW - MARITIME N2 - 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 ER -