Three months after the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration on the South China Sea, the defiant words and actions of Beijing continue to perpetuate the widespread belief that the decision was a complete defeat for China.

It may be true that the tribunal severely undercut China’s claim to sovereignty over nearly all of that water body, but China has failed to appreciate the broader implications of the tribunal’s decision. Buried within the 501-page ruling is a decision that could open up millions of square miles of Pacific waters to China’s fishing fleet, the largest in the world. More than 4 million square miles of those previously protected waters surround US Pacific territories. This new legal benchmark could actually serve China’s global interests, at the expense of the United States and some of its allies.

The tribunal felt compelled to offer a concrete definition of an “island” under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). According to UNCLOS, the government in sovereign control of an island can enforce a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around its shoreline. In contrast to islands, rocks only merit a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles.

http://www.atimes.com/south-china-seas-ruling-hidden-benefits-beijing/