“…While much of the literature focuses on economic, military and political dimensions (e.g., Do Thanh Hai, 2017 ; Buszynski & Roberts, 2015 ), some studies have sought to understand the SCS disputes in terms of cartographic representations of territory, maritime sovereignty, sovereign rights, or localized, politicized and territorialized fisheries (Hayton, 2014 ; 2019 ; Sasges, 2016 ; 2020 ; Roszko, 2015 ; 2020 ; Zhang, 2016 ; Zhang & Bateman, 2017 ). Elsewhere I have shown that rather than an abstract and bounded state territory, the disputed Paracel and Spratly archipelagos are the historical fishing grounds of ethnically diverse groups (Hainanese, Việt, Cham, Bugis and others) who became familiarized with these spaces through seafaring, fishing, planting coconut trees or even salvaging cargo from shipwrecks (Roszko, 2017 : 36−9).…”