Why are countries fighting over the South China Sea? Dotted with small islands, reefs and shoals, the South China Sea is a crucial global shipping route and home to a messy territorial dispute. The US and its allies have pushed back by sailing warships through the South China Sea close to features claimed or occupied by China, in what it calls freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS). The Chinese-controlled artificial island of Mischief Reef in the South China Sea, as seen by CNN from a US reconnaissance plane on August 10. Both China and Japan have claimed a rocky, uninhabited island chain in the East China Sea as their own.

Source: CNN September 27, 2020 00:45 UTC