The US extended its claims on the ocean floor by an area twice the size of California, securing rights to potentially resource-rich seabeds at a time when Washington is ramping up efforts to safeguard supplies of minerals key to future technologies.
China’s claims are way more egregious. I’m not defending America’s claims but they’re at least plausibly based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas. They might not be winning legal arguments but they’re plausible enough to be legal arguments.
Some of China’s claims in the South China Sea are so far from the UNCLOS that I’m surprised Rudy Giuliani isn’t involved. Like, they sometimes claim the same rights as archipelago nations. China, you may have noticed, is not shaped like the Seychelles.
They also claim some islands based on arguments like “A Chinese guy saw that island first.” But that isn’t a thing. With all due respect to Zheng He (possibly the greatest mariner of all time), the UNCLOS isn’t based on who called dibs.
China’s claims are way more egregious. I’m not defending America’s claims but they’re at least plausibly based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas. They might not be winning legal arguments but they’re plausible enough to be legal arguments.
Some of China’s claims in the South China Sea are so far from the UNCLOS that I’m surprised Rudy Giuliani isn’t involved. Like, they sometimes claim the same rights as archipelago nations. China, you may have noticed, is not shaped like the Seychelles.
They also claim some islands based on arguments like “A Chinese guy saw that island first.” But that isn’t a thing. With all due respect to Zheng He (possibly the greatest mariner of all time), the UNCLOS isn’t based on who called dibs.