The Philippines last month reported a record-breaking swarm of more than 200 Chinese vessels in several areas inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea. An EEZ gives a coastal state exclusive rights up to 200 miles from its coastline to regulate fishing and exploit natural resources, under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS. China, which claims virtually the entire body of water, scoffs at South China Sea legalities -- in particular an international UNCLOS tribunal’s landmark 2016 verdict that rejected Beijing's territorial claims.
