[GOP_1900AD]

I suspect this to be a PRC plot. They hate the long standing conventions regarding free passage and standard territorial limits, derived initially by the West, and made into a global standard during the late 1800s. If they can shatter the long standing convention, then they can start to make their audacious claims reaching far past their real territorial waters appear to be more reasonable. This must be stopped, or, it will eventually be yet another factor leading us toward world war.

[hedgetrimmer]

Could this have anything to do with the Spratly Islands?

[Jeff Head]

Terrible treaty. IMHO, people are being bought off right and left (particularly on the left, but increasingly in the "right" too), either with money, power, influence, misbegotten ideology, globalization, or threats.

This particularl treaty is just another step towards something akin to:

The Dragon's Fury Series

...or something even worse.

Jeff