Despite all the other things in the news (U.S. race riots, Brexit, Donald versus Hillary versus Gary, new Prime Minister of England), China has also managed to squeeze its way onto the headlines. What have our friends in the Orient been up to lately? They have been creating several new islands in the South China Sea, and, pretty much claiming that this entitles them to almost complete control of that large patch of the Pacific. The present paper is dedicated to an attempt to shed libertarian light on these occurrences.

What, exactly has the People's Republic been doing? They land on tiny atolls and reefs in the Spratly Archipelago. They dredge for sand and coral on the close-by ocean floor, build up these outcroppings, and, viola! we have a new artificial island perched in the sea. At the time of this writing, they have done this in some half dozen places off their coast, but, in many cases, far closer to its neighbors, such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. They have also come into conflict in this regard with South Korea and Japan. As a result of these constructions, they claim, first, they are part of China, proper, and, second, control over vast reaches of ocean is now theirs, given that the reach of a nation extends some 200 miles in terms of influence and 12 nautical miles as far as territorial jurisdiction is concerned.  With more and more such islands, each giving their owner claims to 22.2 kilometers, or 13.8 (land) miles on all four sides of them, this country has come into conflict with its neighbors in terms of not only the land itself but also oil reserves, fishing rights, and safe passage.

As a result of these expansions, the Philippine government has sued its Chinese counterpart in the Permanent Court of Arbitration located in The Hague, Netherlands. This court lacks physical power to impose its findings on anyone but has found in favor of the plaintiff. As a result, China now sees itself on the defensive, and has lashed out at this finding, calling it irrelevant, and worse. It has pledged to simply ignore it.