evidence: Nonetheless, this state of affairs is likely to change in the foreseeable future. Evidence has been mounting in recent years that Beijing is increasingly pursuing a more proactive and confrontational strategy to assert its claims to a major part of the South China Sea, otherwise known as the nine-dash line claim area. The area includes, for example, a vast area that is being contested by Malaysia. Coincidently, this is a vast expansive area wherein lie most of the maritime features and spaces that make up Malaysia's territorial claims and exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Hassan (Reference Hassan2015) noticed that since 2011 incidents of China's assertive behaviours in Malaysian waters have occurred with increasing frequency, the most recent being the removal of Malaysian territorial markers in the Luconia and Erica Reefs (Thayer, Reference Thayer2015), and a series of patrols and military exercises conducted by Chinese Navy and Coastguard vessels in the vicinity of Malaysia's claimed James Shoal (Laeng, Reference Laeng2015; Reuters, 2014).Footnote 10