U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida discussed diplomacy with China and their shared concerns over "coercive and destabilizing activities" in the South China Sea during a meeting on Saturday at the Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington,

A major redrawing of the map of the South China Sea began when Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. In the subsequent three years China built seven new bases in the Spratly Islands, three of them with large airfields,

As China pushes to dominate the South China Sea, it is increasingly willing to use force to drive out the Philippines. In recent months, China’s tactics have raised fears of a superpower showdown in the strategic waterway.