Avoiding conflict in the disputed South China Sea – where China has in recent days conducted three test flights on a newly built airstrip on a reef it reinforced recently – is becoming an increasingly acute diplomatic challenge, analysts say.

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Ms Yun Sun, a Washington-based senior associate with the East Asia programme at the Henry L. Stimson Centre and a non-resident fellow with the Brookings Institution, said Asean’s consensus-based decision-making has enabled China to divide the 10-nation bloc over the South China Sea issue.