The South China Sea is second only to Taiwan as the most dangerous flashpoint in U.S.-China relations.

• China has built or developed small islands, some with military bases, to extend its claims of sovereignty over much of the South China Sea.
• In response, the U.S. pushes back by sending Navy warships through the disputed area in freedom of navigation exercises.
• The Chinese protest and sometimes send their ships and planes perilously close to those of the U.S. in near misses.

It's these exercises and the potential for misjudgment by either side that make the headlines.

• Less reported than these white-knuckle encounters are the legal and diplomatic measures used to pressure China to relent.

Even less reported are the nuts & bolts of China's civilian’ administration of the region.

• That is why 'Sansha City in China's South China Sea Strategy: Building a System of Administrative Control,' a U.S. Naval War College report is so valuable.

In sum, the 57-report says: ‘China established Sansha City in 2012 to administer the bulk of its territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea.’

• ‘Sansha City is headquartered on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands and claims jurisdiction that includes most of the waters within China’s disputed “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea.’

‘Sansha City has created a system of party-state institutions that have normalized administrative control in the South China Sea.’

• ‘Sansha City is responsible for exercising administrative control, implementing military-civil fusion, and carrying out the day-to-day work of rights defense, stability maintenance, environmental protection, and resource development.’
• ‘Sansha City exercises “administrative control” in the sense that the city uses ostensibly civilian means to control contested maritime space and territory.’
• ‘This system ultimately allows China to govern contested areas of the South China Sea as if they were Chinese territory.’

To secure the South China Sea, China is building or developing little islands; using the PLA Navy, Coast Guard, and ‘gray fleet’ to guard these installations; violating international law and ignoring tribunal judgments against its claims; and generally being a bully to Southeast Asian claimants.

• But it is the administrative control over the region by Sansha City that lends a sense of permanence that other actions, even taken together, don’t.

Sansha City tells the world that China is in the South China Sea permanently.

• And only a war can change that.
  

BIG IDEA | ‘Sansha City, headquartered on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, has created a system of party-state institutions that have normalized administrative control in the South China Sea. This system ultimately allows China to govern contested areas of the South China Sea as if they were Chinese territory.’

‘China established Sansha City in 2012 to administer the bulk of its territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea.’

• ‘Sansha City is headquartered on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands and claims jurisdiction that includes most of the waters within China’s disputed “ninedash line” in the South China Sea.’

‘Sansha City has created a system of party-state institutions that have normalized administrative control in the South China Sea.’

• ‘Sansha City is responsible for exercising administrative control, implementing military-civil fusion, and carrying out the day-to-day work of rights defense, stability maintenance, environmental protection, and resource development.’
• ‘Sansha City exercises “administrative control” in the sense that the city uses ostensibly civilian means to control contested maritime space and territory.’

‘This system ultimately allows China to govern contested areas of the South China Sea as if they were Chinese territory.’