Guano Islands Act

It’s ironic that the country most vocal in calling on China to abide by the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the case brought by the Philippines under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) itself refuses to sign on to the convention. Adding to the irony is the fact that the court’s ruling, met by our China-bashers with unconcealed glee, makes it even more unlikely that we will ratify the convention.

Critics of American foreign policy love to point out instances where our policy reeks of hypocrisy. No current issue in international affairs affords a better illustration of our inconsistent sanctimoniousness than the dispute over competing claims to insular territories (whether to call them “islands” or “rocks” is of great significance, as we shall see) in the South China Sea.