International Law Is the Real Threat to China's South China Sea Claims

If an arbitral tribunal finds China in breach of UNCLOS, the international pressure on Beijing would be enormous.

Tensions escalated between Washington and Beijing last week as a U.S. warship approached an artificially created Chinese island in the South China Sea. But the real threat to China came in the courtroom, when an arbitral tribunal in The Hague held that it has jurisdiction over key issues in the Philippines' dispute against China over its South China Sea claims. Whether the Philippines wins or loses in the next phase of the case, the ruling will have serious consequences for China's role as a world power.

Although China says its claims to the South China Sea are indisputable, the Tribunal's ruling only escalates a long-running conflict....

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