evidence: When Japan surrendered three years later, the then-Nationalist government of China (known as the Republic of China) seized the opportunity to stake its claim to the waters and published a national map of China in 1947, including an eleven-dash claim to the South China Sea. [...] The other countries that claim parts of the sea and reject the nine-dash line say the Chinese claim encroaches onto their territory as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Under that law, each country has an EEZ extending 200 nautical miles (around 370km) from their coast over which it has sovereign rights. [...] In the 20 years since, China has reinforced the map with more concrete signs of its claim – building on rocks and islets and expanding its military facilities on these man-made outposts. It has also backed up its claims with ships from its coast guard, maritime militia and fishing fleets.