Since the days the marauding white men invaded the world in the name of conquest, colonialism, imperialism and saving the subhumans, controlling maritime choke points have been their main strategic priority. Gibraltar, Suez, Hormuz, Singapore, Cape of Good Hope, the Panama Canal, the two straits of Turkey were fully in their control. Controlling Singapore is controlling the Strait of Malacca.
The contest for waterways and choke points is gaining intensity today with Russia and a rising China. America is still the dominant hegemon with its fleets of aircraft carriers, the game changer against any challenger. But things are changing. China is building its own fleet of aircraft carriers and at the same time making the American aircraft carrier obsolete with their aircraft carrier killer missiles. The Americans are finding their holds on the international choke points and waterways slipping away. It is now not necessary to have aircraft carriers to control choke points. Oops, Chinese aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Thailand can control the Strait of Malacca.
Drone technology and precision missiles are now proving as effective as aircraft carriers to control choke points. Iran is effectively in control of the Strait of Hormuz. And the rag tag militia of Yemen, the Houthis, are in effective control of the Strait of Bab Al Mandab, which also means they are in control of the ships transiting the Suez and the Red Sea. The Chinese have a base in Djibouti overlooking the Strait.
Russia indirectly controls the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits through its friendly relations with Turkey. Cape of Good Hope is in South Africa, a founding member of BRICS. The Americans may be in control of the Strait of Malacca through Singapore, but Russia and China are also moving in. And China has invested in 129 ports around the world with majority interest in 17 of them and growing.
China and Russia are now in the race for maritime security to protect their supply chains. Controlling Bab - Al Mandab is an equivalent to controlling the Malacca Strait. The maps of maritime trade and trade routes are changing, no longer a western or American monopoly. And China has regained full control of the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.