China Sea, China continued to use maritime law enforcement ships and aircraft to patrol near the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands in order to challenge Japan’s claim. In the South China Sea, China paused its land reclamation effort in the Spratly Islands in late 2015 after adding more than 3,200 acres of land to the seven features it occupies in the archipelago. Although these artificial islands do not provide China with any additional territorial or maritime rights within the South China Sea, China will be able to use them as persistent civil-military bases to enhance its long-term presence in the South China Sea significantly. . (3) On May 30, 2015, at the Shangri-la Dialogue of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter stated that with its actions in the South China Sea, China is out of step with both the international rules and norms that underscore the Asia-Pacific’s security architecture, and the regional consensus that favors diplomacy and opposes coercion . (4) On July 24, 2015, Admiral Harry Harris, Jr., noted at a forum in Colorado that each year more than $5,300,000,000,000 in global sea-based trade passes through the South China Sea. (5) On June 4, 2016, at the Shangri-la Dialogue, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter stated: [T]he United States will stand with regional partners to uphold core principles, like freedom of navigation and overflight and the peaceful resolution of disputes through legal means and in accordance with international law. As I affirmed here last year, and America’s Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea have demonstrated, the United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, so that everyone in the region can do the same. . (6) On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s Tribunal organized pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea issued its unanimous award in the arbitration instituted by Republic of the Philippines against the People’s Republic of China.