Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan are also in dispute with China over the sovereignty of islands in the South China Sea.
And in case you thought the US intervention means there will be an outbreak of peace and harmony in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, the official Xinhua news agency issued a new broadside on Monday, directed at the Philippines.
We recognized the importance of the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea and welcomed its implementation.
WHITEHOUSE: Joint Statement of the 4th ASEAN-U.S. Leaders' Meeting
The meeting in Washington was a show of solidarity between the US, Japan and South Korea in the face of China's reluctance to lean on North Korea, the BBC's state department correspondent Kim Ghattas reports.
In China Daily, Prof Gong Jianhua, a maritime affairs specialist at Guangdong Ocean University, welcomes the new coast guard, but says China should promote joint development with neighbours in the South China Sea on the basis of a China-Asean free trade zone to ease "anxiety and suspicion".
He argued that the deteriorating situation in the South China Sea was the result of "the internal dynamics of China", with Beijing focused on upholding its sovereignty and territory because of the recent leadership change, growing prosperity and a sense that the state-building process was still under way.
Taiwan recently said it would improve the defence capability of more than 100 coastguard troops stationed in a disputed area of the South China Sea.
The fall of communism, the lowering of global trade barriers, the opening up of China, the removal of apartheid in South Africa and the proliferation of the internet all unfolded in that decade.
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Mr Obama intends to raise the matter of territorial disputes in the South China Sea at the East Asia Summit in Bali at the weekend.
In 1941, Japanese planes sank the British battleships "Repulse" and "Prince of Wales" in the South China Sea, killing nearly 800 people.
One of those involves an increasingly shrill argument with the Philippines about who has sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal, a group of rocks in the South China Sea called the Huangyan Islands by China.
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They would call for "the early adoption of a code of conduct in the South China Sea, " referring to a legally binding pact ASEAN would like to forge with China to replace a 2002 nonaggression accord that has failed to stop territorial skirmishes.
Before the ink on the law had dried, China upgraded the administrative status of Sansha City, encompassing a group of disputed islands in the South China Sea, and established a military garrison.
We looked forward to the early conclusion of a Regional Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC).
WHITEHOUSE: Joint Statement of the 4th ASEAN-U.S. Leaders' Meeting
It has succeeded in uniting many of the littoral states in the South China Sea against its high-handed refusal to discuss its territorial claims there.
In terms of the South China Sea and the East Asian Summit, again, I would leave that to our President and to our Secretary of State to discuss with the members there.
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President Obama encouraged the parties to make progress on a binding Code of Conduct in the South China Sea to provide a framework to prevent conflict, manage incidents when they occur, and help resolve disputes.
In December, the ASEAN 10 will hold an informal summit in Kuala Lumpur to which the leaders of China, South Korea and Japan are invited.
There is the big, lolling tongue of its maritime claim in the South China Sea, which unnerves its South-East Asian neighbours.
The Chinese navy was linked in 1985 to illegal smuggling in foreign cars, vans, TVs and VCRs out of Hainan island in the South China Sea, he wrote.
Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan have all objected because it shows disputed islands in the South China Sea and Taiwan to be a part of China.
Joint naval exercises in recent weeks both with the Philippines and Vietnam have irked China at a time of growing tension over its territorial disputes in the South China Sea with those two countries.
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The arrival of the new vessel comes at a time when China is in dispute with a number of neighbouring countries over national boundaries in the East and South China Seas.
Both countries are locked in a dispute over ownership of resource-rich islands in the South China Sea.
Now the Obama administration has declared that the Asia-Pacific region is America's new priority, and in the strategic game taking shape in South-East Asia, America is strengthening alliances in the light of China's rise.
China has used its own interpretation of LOST to assert control over much of the South China Sea in its quest for access to vast quantities of natural resources, potentially sparking conflict with its neighbors.
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