South China Sea

1. The United States would treat China’s pursuit of resources in the dispute-rife South China Sea as illegal

2. The United States has rejected China’s claims in the South China Sea

3. The South China Sea is both home to valuable oil and gas deposits and is a vital waterway for the world’s commerce.

Nine dash line

1. China claims most of the South China Sea through a nine-dash line, a vague delineation based on maps from the 1940s.

2. It has built military bases on artificial islands in the contested areas to cement its claims.

3. Four years ago, a tribunal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea gave a decision against the nine-dash line.

4. China is a party to the Convention and is bound by it. The United States is one of the few countries that is not part of the convention.

5. Based on the court decision, China cannot make claims based on the Scarborough Reef or Spratly Islands, a vast uninhabited archipelago.

6. The US rejects China’s claims in the waters surrounding Vanguard Bank off Vietnam, Lucania Shoals off Malaysia, waters considered in Brunei’s exclusive economic zone and Natuna Besar off Indonesia.

7. The U.S also rejected China’s southernmost claim of Malaysian-administered James Shoal, which is 1,800 km (1,150 miles) from the Chinese mainland.