31. Who then, among the many claimants, rules the roost in the troubled world of chess? 32. Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province, is the other claimant. 33. The bilateral consultations were instituted last year as a confidence building exercise among two of the six claimants to the oil-rich South China Sea Spratly Islands. 34. The incident was the latest in a series of disputes involving the three claimants to the islands -- Japan, Taiwan and China. 35. The other claimants to the Spratlys are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. |