Recently, the China Institute for Marine Affairs under the Ministry of Natural Resources released a comprehensive report titled “Legal Assessment of the United States’ ‘Freedom of Navigation.’”

The study systematically exposes and critiques the illegality and double standards behind Washington’s so-called Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs). In recent years, U.S. warships have repeatedly entered China’s territorial waters—such as those around Huangyan Dao and the Xisha Qundao—under the pretext of safeguarding “freedom of navigation.”

What lies behind these actions? And in what ways has the United States distorted the navigation provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)?