China has pressed Japan not to broach Beijing's disputes with regional neighbours in the South China Sea at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Japan in May.

The United States has seen Chinese activity around a reef that China seized from the Philippines nearly four years ago that could be a precursor to more land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. Navy chief said on Thursday.

Despite some negative social costs, most Philippine presidential candidates welcome American presence in the country because it provides deterrence from China’s assertive actions in the South China Sea. But China is very wary of EDCA and the subsequent increase of U.S. military presence in the Philippines because of Beijing’s long-standing fear of American containment.

The US promise of promoting peace and stability in the South China Sea may sound familiar to regional players as they have heard very same slogans many times in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. All regional countries have to make concerted efforts to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

China has set up a tsunami alert centre in the South China Sea, the head of the country's maritime regulator said on Wednesday, in Beijing's latest effort to bolster its jurisdiction in the disputed waters.

China plans to set up an "international maritime judicial center" to help protect the country's sovereignty and rights at sea, its top judge said on Sunday.

The U.S. Air Force will continue to fly daily missions over the South China Sea despite a buildup of Chinese surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets in the contested region, with both nations' militaries in discussions to avoid any miscalculations, a top U.S. general said Tuesday

China's foreign minister took a hard line Tuesday on the country's claims to virtually all the South China Sea, saying Beijing won't permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the strategically vital area.

The South China Sea is one of the world's freest and safest shipping lanes, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday, arguing that Beijing's control over the disputed waters was justified because it was the first to "discover" them.

For many years, United States military airplanes and ships have conducted close-in surveillance operations on China. Recently, with a more ostentatious move, a U.S. Navy vessel sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Zhongjian Island in China’s Xisha Archipelago in violation of Chinese sovereignty. The U.S. claimed that they will continue the practice in the future.