"it's uninhabited and may look like a bunch of rocks. But ownership of the islands would allow for exclusive oil, mineral, and fishing rights in surrounding waters." http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/25/world/asia/china-japan-island-explainer/
"One Chinese estimate puts the oil stores in the South China waters at 213 billion barrels, an amount that would exceed the proved reserves of every country except Venezuela (296.5 billion barrels at the end of 2011) and Saudi Arabia (265.4 billion barrels). That's about ten times higher than a U.S. Geological Survey estimate from the mid-1990s—but even that lower figure puts the South China Sea's oil potential at four or five times that of the Gulf of Mexico." http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/10/121026-east-china-sea-dispute/