The US does not have any justification for its presence in the South China Sea. The US had not come up with, much less implemented, a viable strategy for maintaining its presence in the South China Sea. China very cleverly went on a new, unexpected tack to assert its sovereignty in the South China Sea. China accelerated such construction after the Philippines filed its arbitration suit against the superpower’s actions and its vague nine-dash line that claimed more than half of the South China Sea. Scarborough lossThat would have painted China as a violent aggressor in the South China Sea, which would have rallied the world to the US side, demanding it to be the region’s policemen.

Source: Manila Times September 13, 2018 16:30 UTC