An excuse to stir up trouble

The United States is one of the countries that helped shape the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and its subsequent revisions, but as yet the US has still not signed it.

However, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently urged US legislators to approve the country's accession to the convention, saying that joining the convention would secure US navigational rights and its ability "to challenge other countries' behavior on the firmest and most persuasive legal footing, including in critical areas such as the South China Sea".

It is the US' global strategy adjustment that has prompted this change of heart. The US is rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific region and cannot wait to interfere in the South China Sea disputes using the legal framework of the convention, especially as China and the Philippines are locked in a naval standoff near Huangyan Island. This is fully demonstrated by Clinton's remarks that the US is ceding the legal high ground to China and is not as strong an advocate for its friends and allies as it would like to be.