China’s stated commitment to respecting international law rings hollow as evidence mounts that it is systematically violating the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)—a treaty Beijing ratified in 1996.
The scene of these egregious violations is the South China Sea, where China lays spurious claim to sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal, a resource-rich atoll in the Philippines’ so-called Exclusive Economic Zone. Known as Bajo de Masinloc in the Philippines and Huangyan Island in Chinese, the shoal has been effectively occupied by a permanent Chinese Coast Guard presence since a 2012 standoff, both because of the rich fishing grounds that surround it and its strategic position on international shipping routes.
An international arbitration ruling in 2016 invalidated China’s expansive claims and found that the shoal is a traditional fishing ground for several nations. But rather than abiding by the arbitration it signed up to, China has responded by escalating its maritime aggression, combined with a coordinated disinformation campaign designed to obscure its illegality.
