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(16/12/2015) - Showdown in the South China Sea: How did we get here?
(CNN)Dotted with small islands, reefs and shoals, the South China Sea is home to a messy territorial dispute that pits multiple countries against each other. China's "nine-dash line" -- its claimed territorial waters that extend hundreds of miles to the south and east of its island province of Hainan -- abut its neighbors' claims and, in some cases, encroach upon them. Tensions have ratcheted up as China has reclaimed some 2,000 acres of land in a massive dredging operation, turning sandbars into islands equipped with airfields, ports and lighthouses. On Tuesday, China said it warned and tracked the U.S.S. Lassen, a destroyer, as it came close tofive of its artificial islands in the South China Sea's contested waters. Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the United States, told CNN Tuesday that the U.S. patrol was "a very serious provocation, politically and militarily."
Who claims what?
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Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all dispute sovereignty of several island chains and nearby waters in the South China Sea -- with rival claims to the Chinese interpretation.
To the north, in the East China Sea, China is also locked in territorial disputes with Japan and South Korea.
China is actually relatively late to the party when it comes to occupying territory in the Spratlys, which Beijing calls the Nansha islands.
Taiwan first occupied an island in the archipelago after World War II, and the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia followed suit, and all have built outposts and airstrips on their claimed territory, according to Mira Rapp-Hooper, a Senior Fellow in Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).
The Philippines, which lies geographically closest to the Spratlys, has troops stationed in the area.
China started its occupation of reefs and islands in the area in the late 1980s.
Vietnam also disputes China's administration of the Paracel islands -- and last year saw tensions surge as its northern neighbor installed exploratory oil rigs in the region.