Beijing’s insistence on ignoring global opinion risks upending post-war order

As it emerges from several decades of economic success and military development, China is flexing its muscles in the region as it continues to remind the world of its “century of humiliation” at the hands of foreign powers.

It was the principle of “might makes right” that drove Western powers and the Japanese to colonise China’s coastal regions and divide her territories among themselves. It was Imperial Japan’s overwhelming economic and military prowess that motivated them to invade Asia — for good or ill.

This application of force and power delivered untold suffering to this region during the 20th century, and inspired colonised peoples to break their chains and declare themselves independent states in the spirit of self-determination.

And in response to the human suffering caused, international institutions such as the United Nations(UN) and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) rose to organise a rules-based global order to parley differences among states.

China’s insistence on ignoring the opinion of the international community risks upending the post-war order we have enjoyed thus far.

To appease Chinese South China Sea-related tantrums poses the increasing risk of legitimising a menace not unlike the imperial powers of the past, which subjugated our forefathers.