A surge in naval manoeuvres in the South China Sea by Western allies this year is keeping China from any further expansion into the contested waters, analysts said. “You take a realist perspective of power, and it’s a way of ensuring the South China Sea is permanently contested,” said Assoc Prof Alan Chong at the RSIS in Singapore. “So, the Chinese will issue angry statements and so on, warning of consequences, but the fact that all these multinational navies keep doing it in spite of Chinese warnings, it defies Beijing,” he said.