As China has worked to expand its role in the Pacific region, it has taken steps to protect its strategic trade routes, resources and markets from foreign interdiction. In part, this has meant trying to cement Beijing's long-standing claims to a broad swath of the South China Sea -- claims that many of China's Pacific Rim rivals dispute. Some, like the Philippines, have even gone so far as to take their competitors to court. In January 2013, Manila initiated legal proceedings against Beijing for violating the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a 1994 regulation intended to provide predictable, mutually agreed-upon definitions and dispute resolution mechanisms to settle maritime conflicts. Since all of the South China Sea's major claimants (with the exception of Taiwan) are parties to the agreement, UNCLOS should, in theory, solve any disputes that take place there. The U.N. Permanent Court of Arbitration agreed...
