evidence: In recent weeks, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has dispatched ships and other maritime forces to the disputed Spratly islands near the Philippines. The goal has been to coerce the Philippines into withdrawing from the contested Second Thomas Shoal, effectively ceding it to the PRC. China’s actions are in defiance of the international Permanent Court of Arbitration’s findings that undermine PRC claims to the Spratlys. They therefore constitute a serious challenge to the international rules governing maritime conduct, as well as to broader peace and stability in the South China Sea, through which enormous amounts of global trade flow. The Spratlys are a group of geographic features including reefs, shoals and rocks located near the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia — and several hundred miles from China’s shores. The area is claimed by the PRC, Taiwan (as the Republic of China), Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. [...] China is clearly intent upon coercing the Philippines out of its position in the Spratlys, regardless of the Philippines’ formal legal rights and claims. Indeed, it is quite likely that the PCA findings have only strengthened the PRC’s resolve to secure the Spratlys (as well as the separate Scarborough Shoal and Macclesfield Bank territories). At the same time, the PRC is likely trying to signal to the region that American support is both escalatory and counterproductive.