evidence: Spratly Islands, large group of reefs, shoals, atolls, and small islets in the South China Sea of the Pacific Ocean. They are located north of insular Malaysia and are roughly midway between Vietnam and the Philippines, and they are claimed—wholly or in part—by several countries in the region. [...] China has asserted that its claim to the Spratlys dates back centuries. The Chinese government has stated that almost the entire South China Sea, including the Spratlys and other island groups, is within its sphere of influence. Those claims have been strongly disputed by the Philippines and Vietnam in particular. China first established a presence in the Spratlys in 1988, when its military forcibly removed a Vietnamese garrison from Johnson South Reef. In early 2014 China began intensively building up artificial land on certain reefs and atolls. That activity and China’s stronger statements on its claimed territorial integrity in the Spratlys exacerbated tensions with the United States, which dispatched a U.S. warship through the region in October 2015.