A billboard featuring an image of an island in South China Sea on display that reads: “South China Sea, our beautiful motherland, we won’t let go an inch”. Credit CHINATOPIX, via Associated Press
No one expected last month’s international arbitration court decision to be the last word on the tug-of-war over the South China Sea and its many islands, rocks and reefs. The waterway is too strategically important and the disputes too complex for the competing claims by China and five other countries in the region to be quickly resolved. Yet provocations continue, raising questions about China’s commitment to the rule of law and heightening fears of a wider conflict.

In last month’s decision, a five-judge panel in The Hague ruled unanimously that China had no legal basis to claim longstanding rights over most of the South China Sea, which is rich in resources and carries out $5 trillion in annual trade.

The judgment, more sweeping and categorical than expected, also faulted China for its aggressive attempts to enlarge its domain by shipping in tons of dirt to transform small reefs and rocks into artificial islands with airstrips and military structures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/chinas-defiance-in-the-south-china-sea.html?_r=1