The South China Sea is at the centre of competing territorial, economic, and strategic interests.1 The claimant countries are Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. This chapter reviews how economic interests have negatively influenced the peaceful management of the maritime territorial dispute. No bilateral or multilateral fisheries agreement has so far been negotiated in the South China Sea. Likewise, the prospect for the joint development of hydrocarbon resources has been under discussion since the early 1990s but no tangible results have so far been reached. The recent escalation in tensions as well as rising great power competition has further complicated the joint development of resources.