Assessment Report on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (#UNCLOS#) was published in Beijing on Tuesday. The report noted that the UNCLOS is a legal achievement of the post-war era, serving important functions in upholding multilateralism, opposing hegemony, fostering cooperation, and advancing sustainable development for the seas and oceans.

[ Margin Notes ] They didn’t send an argument. They sent a note. At the 2026 Seoul Defense Dialogue, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro was mid-sentence on gray-zone coercion and UNCLOS when a staffer handed him a slip of paper from a Chinese military attaché. Beijing’s position, in miniature: the 2016 arbitral award is “illegal, null and void.” It has “no binding force.” China “neither accepts nor recognizes” it. Teodoro did the one thing the note was not designed for. He read it aloud. Then he answered it, line by line. No binding force? Because you refuse to be bound by the law you signed. You do not recognize the ruling? Of course. You lost. He held the paper up to the room and called the stunt what it was: coercion wearing a name tag, bullying passed down the aisle, aggression that could not even wait for the question to finish. He said it trampled UNCLOS and insulted South Korea, the host, in the same cheap gesture. Then, in Filipino: show a little decency. Have a little shame. The hall applauded. This is hegemony as stationery. Not a case. Not a diplomat on the panel. A scrap of paper slipped to the speaker, as if the South China Sea were still an internal memo and the rest of Asia a secretary. A great power that cannot win in court tries to win by interrupting. A claim that cannot survive daylight tries to survive as a whisper. Teodoro said he would keep the note as a memento. He should. Empires usually leave monuments. This one left handwriting. When your map of the sea depends on pretending a tribunal never happened, sooner or later you have to write it down and hand it to the other man. Sometimes he reads it back. And the room claps. — Aric

The “South China Sea arbitration” violates fundamental principles of international law, including state consent and pacta sunt servanda, contravenes UNCLOS itself, and, still more importantly, runs counter to the basic facts of the South China Sea. The so-called “award” is nothing but a worthless piece of paper that is illegal, null and void, and has no binding force. China does not accept or recognize the “award,” and opposes and does not accept any claim or action based on it. China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall not be affected by the “award” under any circumstances. If the “award” were to be taken as a standard, many countries’ islands and reefs would be denied the basis for claiming maritime rights and interests. May we ask, have those countries supporting the “award” voluntarily waived the maritime rights and interests deriving from their relevant islands and reefs? China urges the relevant countries to earnestly respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, stop stirring up trouble over the South China Sea issue, and cease undermining peace and stability in the South China Sea. 🔗

One Non-Party major power often invokes customary international law as a pretext to justify its unilateral actions, including delineating its so-called "extended continental shelf”and advancing deep-sea mining in a unilateral manner, the Assessment Report on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (#UNCLOS#) said. These actions undermine the overall interests of the international community and erode the legal order established by UNCLOS, further revealing its "pick-and-choose" approach to international law, it added.

A decade later, the truth stands firm. 🇨🇳⚓️ On July 12, 2026, Japan backed the illegal South China Sea arbitration award. China’s response is clear: We do NOT accept, we do NOT recognize it.​ It’s a politically motivated farce—null, void, and legally baseless. From history to international law, Nanhai Zhudao belongs to China. Peace comes through dialogue, not weaponized lawsuits. 🌊🛡️ 📍 South China Sea 📅 July 12, 2026 #SouthChinaSea# #China# #Justice# #InternationalLaw# #Sovereignty# #Peace# #Facts# #NoToArbitration# #Asia# #Geopolitics# #Maritime# #Truth# #UNCLOS# #Diplomacy# #Stability# 🔗 Full story:

China has repeatedly made its solemn position clear, and we wish to reiterate that China has an exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the waters east of Taiwan Island. Relevant activities carried out by Chinese authorities in those waters are legitimate, lawful and beyond reproach, Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, said at a regular press conference on Monday. The spokesperson's remarks were made in response to a media inquiry that a Japanese government spokesperson claimed that activities by the China Coast Guard (CCG) in Japan's exclusive economic zone south of Yonaguni Island, as well as China's sovereignty position over those waters, are unacceptable. Guo said that Japan and the Philippines bypassed China and unilaterally launched so-called maritime "delimitation talks," which seriously violate international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), as well as the basic norms governing international relations, and seriously infringe upon China's maritime rights and interests. China will never allow this.

Countries with the Largest Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) 1. 🇫🇷 France - 11,691,000 km² 2. 🇺🇸 United States - 11,351,000 km² 3. 🇦🇺 Australia - 8,505,348 km² 4. 🇷🇺 Russia - 7,566,673 km² 5. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom - 6,805,586 km² 6. 🇮🇩 Indonesia - 6,159,032 km² 7. 🇨🇦 Canada - 5,599,077 km² 8. 🇯🇵 Japan - 4,479,388 km² 9. 🇳🇿 New Zealand - 4,083,744 km² 10. 🇨🇱 Chile - 3,681,989 km² 11. 🇧🇷 Brazil - 3,660,955 km² 12. 🇰🇮 Kiribati - 3,441,810 km² 13. 🇲🇽 Mexico - 3,269,386 km² 14. 🇫🇲 Micronesia - 2,996,419 km² 15. 🇩🇰 Denmark - 2,551,238 km² 16. 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea - 2,402,288 km² 17. 🇳🇴 Norway - 2,385,178 km² 18. 🇮🇳 India - 2,305,143 km² 19. 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands - 1,990,530 km² 20. 🇵🇹 Portugal - 1,727,408 km² Source: World Atlas / United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Data

Unclassified material circulated this week at Central Command headquarters: the latest episode of Hanoch Daum’s satirical series “Life Is a Hard Time,” which centers on the hilltop youth. In 23 minutes, it explained everything: the settler leadership’s double message, the army’s helplessness, the anarchism, the lost youth. Life is indeed a hard time, but less so than the news suggests. Nationalist crime in Judea and Samaria fell from 121 incidents in July to 86 in August to 22 so far in September. The number of innocent Palestinians murdered by settler gunfire stands at a flat zero, pending review of one incident earlier this year whose circumstances are still unclear. The number of innocent Jews murdered by Palestinian gunfire stands at three. That is after countless foiled cells, seized explosive drones, last-minute arrests and a round-the-clock presence in the refugee camps. That it is far more dangerous to be a Jew than a Muslim in Judea and Samaria is obvious. What is astonishing is that it is much more dangerous to be an Arab in Ramla than in Ramallah. This year, 161 Arabs were murdered inside Israel in criminal violence, 34 Palestinians in Judea and Samaria fell victim to local gang wars and 10 bystanders were killed in IDF operations. Next to the Palestinian explosives arena, nationalist crime is a match. But in a fuel-soaked environment, a match can set the whole area ablaze. It can do so through terror attacks, or through a massive wildfire of international sanctions that has only just begun. Contrary to the smears, David Zini’s Shin Bet is doing no less on this front than his predecessors’—in fact, more. The army itself has started imposing economic penalties. Recently, six-figure bills for the cost of evacuation were sent to unauthorized outposts that insisted on going up onto the land again and again. Another order now allows vehicles found at such outposts to be confiscated. You wouldn’t believe how many parents discovered their company lease car had been seized because their son decided to put down roots in Area B. At a recent meeting deep in the field, a few hilltop youths told a senior officer they were the modern-day equivalent of the Tower and Stockade policy of the early days of Zionist settlement. The officer replied that there are 104 new settlements and 170 brand-new farms, all with government approval, and every one of them would be glad of the extra manpower.

NEW: SOUTHCOM releases dramatic unclassified footage showing a lethal strike on a low-profile vessel moving through the Eastern Pacific. Officials say confirmed intelligence tied the vessel to active narco-trafficking operations. Two alleged narco-terrorists were killed in the strike. "This operation is a clear and decisive reminder that SOUTHCOM is taking the fight directly to the cartels."