Could be.
I’m not sure how it claims those waters, since they are off the coasts of Vietnam and the Philippines.
We’re probably shirking the need to keep those waterways open.
This would be a problem in a global conflict.
China wants to cut off access to the Indian Ocean, or at the very least make it very difficult for us.
China has stolen and enhanced and fortified the Spratlys and Paracels and claims all the waters around them as national waters. China has actually claimed once that all the water up to the beaches of Borneo and Vietnam and Phillipines are Chinese waters of China. China is putting itself in position to strangle Vietnam and to tax a large portion of world trade.