What does China see as its strategic objectives in the East and South China Seas?

What does China see as its strategic objectives in the East and South China Seas?

23 June 2015 [Part of a Larger Report by the Lowy Institute, Australia] 
Linda Jakobson
A useful starting point to explore China’s understanding of its strategic maritime objectives is to contemplate China’s perception of possible threats to its maritime periphery. The United States is the only country in the world that can patrol and control vital shipping lanes, technically known as sea lines of communications, on which China’s continued economic growth relies. Japan, until recently, deployed a larger and stronger coast guard fleet. Vietnam and the Philippines, alongside other claimants, persist as adamantly as China in their claims to contested islands as well as the maritime rights stemming from these claims.http://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/reading-chinas-maritime-objectives-indo-pacific-asia-perception-gap