Publication

This paper examines the role China’s domestic institutions play in furthering the country’s efforts to assert its claims over disputed territory in the South China Sea. More specifically, the author focuses the Chinese State Council’s upgrading of Sansha, a tiny community on an island in the disputed region of the South China Sea, to the status of a prefecture-level city and what this - and China’s creation of institutions on the island - demonstrates about Beijing’s efforts to expand its control over the region. She also looks at what role US policy toward the region plays in dealing with the disputes in the South China Sea.