Without incurring any international cost, China belligerently continues to push its borders far out into international waters in a way that no power has done before. Its modus operandi to extend its frontiers in the South China Sea — a global trade and maritime hub — involves creating artificial islands and claiming sovereignty over them and their surrounding waters.
In just a little over two years, it has built seven islands in its attempt to annex a strategically crucial corridor through which $5.3 trillion in trade flows every year. In fact, about half of the world's annual merchant fleet tonnage passes through the South China Sea.
Beijing may claim to base its expansive claims in the South China Sea on historical records, including a 1947 map made by the Kuomintang, but it was only in 2009 that it lodged with the United Nations its so-called nine-dash line, which pushes up against the coastlines of all the other countries in the region. And it was not until late 2013 that it quietly began turning rock outcrops and reefs into islands to serve as its strategic outposts, including one that now houses a 3,000-meter airstrip for warplanes.