The Chinese Slides from MILOPS

I thought Lawfare readers might find at once fascinating and amusing these Powerpoint slides from the Chinese presentation at the recent MILOPS conference in Singapore. They’re, uh, certainly unencumbered by anything like doubt or nuance with respect to China’s legal claims to the islands of the South China Sea. The talk they are connected with, which I am sorry to have missed, was given by Yunxia Song of the Dalian Naval Academy and had the in-your-face title, “China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea: Understanding the South China Sea issue from the angle of law.” Get it? The slides, which I hear enraged the delegation from Vietnam, offer an interesting window into the nexus of Chinese nationalism and international law. (One technical note: The slides need to be watched using Powerpoint’s slideshow feature. Some of them will seem unintelligible if merely viewed in the editor.)