The South China Sea disputes are long-standing. However, perhaps at no time have they posed as prominent an issue or as great a concern for China–Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) relations as they do today. Not only that, but the disputes are also the most complicated they have ever been. Long challenged by the number of actors and different kinds of claims involved—with ASEAN itself tested by the different preferences of its members—managing these disputes are today additionally complicated by heightened domestic regime legitimacy concerns faced by key states, as well as the intersection of major power politics and the ongoing geopolitical negotiations between the United States and China.