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.