@tuban_muzuru @billiglarper @mekkaokerekemekka okereke Here's a piece of history many people in the West aren't particularly familiar with, but most people in China know deeply.

The Pearl River Delta flows into the South China Sea.

Around the Pearl River Delta is a cluster of critical Chinese trading ports. Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Dongguan, Shenzhen, and Macau.

Chances are most of the people reading this are doing so on a phone built in the Pearl River Delta region.

A key battle during the First Opium War was a British attack on the Pearl River Delta:

"The Second Battle of Chuenpi[a] (Chinese: 第二次穿鼻之戰) was fought between British and Chinese forces in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong province, China, on 7 January 1841 during the First Opium War. The British launched an amphibious attack at the Humen strait (Bogue), capturing the forts on the islands of Chuenpi and Taikoktow. Subsequent negotiations between British Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot and Chinese Imperial Commissioner Qishan resulted in the Convention of Chuenpi on 20 January. As one of the terms of the agreement, Elliot announced the cession of Hong Kong Island to the British Empire, after which the British took formal possession of the island on 26 January."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Chuenpi

That battle led to China ceding Hong Kong to the British, beginning the "Century of Humiliation". (That's the century before Mao seized control of China.)

China wants to avoid the Pearl River Delta cities being attacked by a hostile naval power, and the Pearl River being blockaded, and the South Chins Sea being blockaded.

That's by the British again, or the Americans, or any other hostile foreign power.

Thus the critical importance to China in controlling the South China Sea.

Truth be told, were there a mononuclear armed conflict between the US and China, the US would almost certainly at least attempt to blockade the Pearl River Delta or the South China Sea, if it were in a position to do so.

And I don't think you can understand China's determination to control the South China Sea without understanding the Opium Wars.