By Dan Blumenthal & Michael Mazza
The Obama administration seems determined to put political science theories to the test by “binding” China into the rules-based order over which the United States presides. Only this time, China is already a signatory to the rules in question. The Obama administration seems to think it is the United States that needs the binding.
The timing of this new push over the U.N. Convention on the Law of Sea, signed by President Bill Clinton and then defeated by the Senate in 1994, is curious. One need only scan the past three years of Chinese activities in the South China, East China, and Yellow seas to find evidence that China intends to change the maritime status quo in ways detrimental to U.S. interests. Despite ratifying UNCLOS, China’s maritime behavior in East Asia runs contrary to international law and custom as they have been commonly understood for centuries.
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