Last autumn, the Japanese-owned Tenyu sailed out of the Malacca Strait bound for South Korea with 1, 500 tonnes of aluminium ingots.

ECONOMIST: Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rice wine

The island city-state sits at the mouth of the strategically vital Strait of Malacca.

WSJ: Ian Bremmer on Pivot States

Of the 74, 000 vessels, carrying one-third of global seaborne trade, that passed through the Strait of Malacca last year, most also plied the South China Sea.

ECONOMIST: The South China Sea becomes a zone of eternal dispute