An interactive dashboard visualizing the latest ACLED data on maritime conflict and tension — including military and non-military activity, as well as coercive actions — in the South China Sea region. Updated twice weekly on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The South China Sea is one of the world’s most contested maritime theaters, defined by overlapping sovereignty claims, intensifying US–China strategic rivalry, and its critical position between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It sits at the nexus of global trade routes, fisheries, energy resources, international law, and regional security dynamics.
Rising tensions between China and ASEAN claimant states have turned the region into a persistent arena of strategic competition, characterized by coercive diplomacy, maritime militarization, and dense gray-zone operations that remain below the threshold of open conflict.
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Gray zone operations in the disputed waters are more frequent, testing the status quo for the US-China rivalry and allies in the region.
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