Ian Johnson on China's imperial ambitions in the NYRB

Between 2013 and 2015 it built more than 3000 acres of new land in the South China Sea by occupying and expanding shoals and refs just off the coast of the Philippines int islands big enough to support radar stations, runways and docks for its growing navy... Along with the building campaign has been Beijing's novel, contemptuous might be the better word, interpretation of the international law of the sea.  First, the Chinese government violated any accepted understanding of maritime law by declaring the reefs and shoals to be sovereign territory.  Then it claimed the waters around them as its exclusive economic zone.  Finally it declared that economic zones of control are virtually the same as territorial waters, go ing it the right to chase off any ship that passes through.  The fact has been to make the South China Sea into China's South Sea. This means more than Beijing being the dominant power in the region; it wants to control these waters as if they were an inland lake.