Defusing Asia’s Arms Race
China's goals in Asia are to prevent its neighbors from uniting against it and to diminish the role of international law in a region where it seeks strategic hegemony. Now that the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has ruled against its claims to the South China Sea, will China take the path of militarism or diplomacy?
BANGKOK – The ruling against China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague will be met with relief in the region’s capitals. But it is unlikely to reverse one of Asia’s most worrying trends: an alarming regional arms build-up.