The post-COVID era has been punishing for global trade. Lockdowns and factory closures sparked supply chain delays worldwide and helped fuel decades-high inflation.

The Suez Canal was closed for a week in 2021 after a container ship got stuck. Attacks on shipping by Yemen-based Houthis and Iran over the past 10 months have forced a rerouting of container vessels from the Red Sea via Africa

And now China's military standoffs in the South China Sea could also impact the smooth flow of trade.

Making up part of the western Pacific Ocean, the South China Sea sits between southern China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia.

About a third of global maritime trade passes through the 3.5 million square kilometer (1.4 million square mile) seaway annually, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Around 40% of petroleum products traded globally are delivered via the sea every year.

In 2016, an estimated $3.6 trillion (€3.29 trillion) worth of goods and commodities traveled the seaway, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Another estimate put the figure as high as $5.3 trillion.

Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina calculated that total trade through both the South China Sea and the East China Sea — which lies between China, the two Koreas and Japan — is worth $7.4 trillion per year.

Tens of thousands of cargo vessels move through the South China Sea every year, carrying around 40% of China's, a third of India's and 20% of........

© Deutsche Welle