China unfortunately does have some claim,,, whether or not we like it or if it ethical, but it is not the only country to have such claims and unfortunately, for some reason or other at some point in time or other,,, other countries for political reasons or historical have backed it up.
I think this below was a response to this.China doesnt have a claim any more then USA has a right to stop people crossing the atlantic, the territorial waters of the chinese mainland only go so far and then its open waters for any ship. If they intend to start a war or aggression similar to north korea then they will degrade their position in the world. Really that would be the same whichever party in in control in USA.
Building artificial islands and threatening other countries is just part of CCP's ongoing self-aggrandization.I'd agree that this is China flexing its muscles. It has risen to superpower status on the world stage, and like any superpower is using its might to get what it wants. Global politics is often far more about who is most powerful than it is about who is morally right. Probably the only way to remedy this is to have a supreme global legal body that has actual and practically enforceable powers - which of course will not happen, as it would be advantageous to weak nations but disadvantageous to the powerful.
It is not simply anymore about China inevitably flexing muscles because its a superpower. The Chinese philosophy and methods are antithetical to the concept of mutual respect and fraternity amongst nations. Chinese operate with an assumption of superiority and being above international law. CCP has shown that it is unsuitable to be an honorable member in the comity of nations. The world cooperated with them and they benefited immensely from the investments and open markets in the last two decades. What did they do in return?? Back-stab everyone, Steal technology, try to undermine social stability and cohesion by playing on fault lines of democracies and use a pandemic as a stock-buying opportunity.Geo-strategic think-tanks have long battled with the question that what would a rising China look like. It is getting clearer by the day. Ask Hongkongers.
As everyone might have heard, Trump is now advocating wearing masks etc. and he did his first Corona briefing since late April again. Now with the numbers getting possibly (artificially) lower in the upcoming weeks, he can brag about it. At the point HE started telling people how to handle things, the numbers have improved tremendously.