Seven years after our dramatic victory before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, do we feel like winners? The unique setup allows CCG ships to swarm the South China Sea without its description (at least by Beijing) as militarization. Unfortunately, the harsh reality in geopolitics is that possession is nine-tenths of the law, might makes right and size does matter. On the seventh anniversary of the arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s nine-dash-line claim over nearly the entire South China Sea, we don’t look any closer to making Beijing bow to the ruling. * * *Looking on the bright side, the past few years have seen growing international support for the arbitral ruling and the Philippines.
