South China Sea states strengthen capacity to counter China’s overreach

FORUM Staff

More than 20% of the world’s maritime trade flows through the South China Sea. The sea’s rich fishing grounds help feed nearly 2 billion people in Southeast Asia and its unexplored depths are believed to contain vast stores of oil and natural gas.

China illegally claims almost all of the crucial waterway, ignoring the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which grants coastal states an exclusive economic zone stretching 200 nautical miles from their territorial seas, and an international tribunal’s 2016 ruling invalidating Beijing’s arbitrary claims.

Among the nations that dispute Beijing’s assertions, Malaysia is often “misunderstood as very much appeasing China, especially in the South China Sea,” said Hoo Chiew Ping, a senior fellow at the Kuala Lumpur-based East Asian International Relations Caucus. The country has been quieter than other claimants about China’s overreach, Hoo acknowledged during the 15th annual South China Sea Conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., in mid-June 2025. The Philippines, for example, battles Chinese Communist Party (CCP) coercion with a campaign of assertive transparency.

Malaysia employs a more “discrete” way of managing the CCP’s coercion in the South China Sea, where Beijing falsely alleges that Malaysian oil and gas exploration infringes on China’s territory. The approach “doesn’t mean that we are ignoring what is really happening on the ground, out in the sea, in our territorial waters and also exclusive economic zone,” Hoo said.

Kuala Lumpur is strengthening military capabilities with new Navy and Air Force bases and increased deployments for air and maritime domain awareness. The Malaysian Armed Forces trains with the United States Air Force, Army, Navy and special operations forces, and conducts exercises with nations such as Australia, France and South Korea, according to Hoo. Malaysia’s Coast Guard also has trained with Japanese forces in addition to conducting exercises and operations “across the entire South China Sea, from the eastern region to the west,” she said.

The Philippines is similarly modernizing its defense capabilities and strengthening alliances and partnerships as it continues exposing Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea. In addition to harassing Philippine fishing crews, maritime law enforcement patrols and routine Navy operations, China is now endangering Philippine pilots and aircraft with risky maneuvers over the South China Sea, Jacqueline Espenilla, a senior fellow at the University of the Philippines’ Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said during the CSIS conference.

Manila, which initiated the tribunal case that invalidated Beijing’s South China Sea claims, is considering another case against China, Espenilla said, possibly in response to environmental damage caused by China’s activities in the waterway.

Meanwhile, analysts say the CCP has failed to manage any gains it has made in the South China Sea. “China’s maintaining an incredible amount of coast guard presence … but it’s been unable to really stop Southeast Asia from using that space economically,” said Harrison Pretat, deputy director of CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

The U.S. and its Allies and Partners help maintain stability, added Krista Wiegand, director of the U.S.-based Center for National Security and Foreign Affairs. “These efforts include predominantly commitments by the U.S., Japan, Australia … disputants in the South China Sea, particularly the Philippines, but also Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam,” she said.

“There’s been a continued emphasis on respect for international law and freedom of navigation.”