A major test for the future of Asia is on the horizon, and it’s centered on the South China Sea.

Within the next three months, a tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is expected to rule on China’s expansive and somewhat ambiguous territorial claims in the South China Sea, which the Philippines contends are invalid under international law.

That decision is important for a number of reasons, but among them, experts say, is that China’s island-grabbing campaign may be designed to give Beijing a strategic headlock on one of the planet’s most critical waterways.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/06/south-china-sea-is-beijing-making-a-new-strategic-strait.html