The Philippines, is a claimant in the South China Sea maritime territorial dispute along with China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, and the unrecognized claimant Taiwan.
The Philippines moved the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in January 2013 seeking arbitration on its 15-point submission (contentions against China).
The immediate context of this move was China’s increased military and non-military activities in the region such as patrolling, military infrastructure building, and exploitation of mineral resources, and other civil and commercial activities.
The submission by the Philippines can be classified in four major types:
