China is Playing by Its Own Rules

China has apparently gone back on its word. According to Gordon Chang, a writer for Forbes and the Daily Beast who was on Frank Gaffney’s radio show today, China has put an air defense system on a large island in the South China Sea, defying a promise its foreign minister made to John Kerry just last month.

Chang says that the rest of the world considers this area international waters and international airspace.

“The United States needs to work much more closely with countries in the region because if we allow them to close off the global commons, other countries around the world will do so. The open architecture which has provided the prosperity for the rest of the world will then be at risk. So, there’s a lot on the line right here.”

Gaffney brought up the “Law of the Sea Treaty” which intends to keep areas like this free for “all comers” but Chang suggested it doesn’t have an impact because China won’t comply. The U.S. Navy has indicated that it wants the United States to join this treaty but it won’t do any good because China doesn’t honor its commitments.

Chang even suggested that the U.S. recently hosted a conference for ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ) in a backhanded effort to pressure China into being a more compliant partner but that the effort went largely unnoticed.

Despite our best efforts, China is simply doing what it wants to do.