Any potential deals between Manila and Beijing on energy exploration in the South China Sea should be agreed with a company and not the Chinese government, a senior Philippine official said on Thursday. China claims most of the South China Sea, a key trade route and home to areas that are believed to hold large quantities of oil and natural gas. China Is accused of building ‘island fortresses’ as Philippine newspaper The Philippine Daily Inquirer obtained aerial images that were passed to its reporters by an unnamed source – were mostly taken between June and December last year and showed Chinese construction activities across the disputed Spratly archipelago, between the Philippines and Vietnam. Along with China, parts of the South China Sea are subject to competing claims from Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia.