The South China Sea dispute, therefore, goes to the core of Beijing’s demand for an overhaul of the current global order. What legitimacy does America have to challenge China’s foreign policy when it, too, has weaponized the international rules-based order to suit its national interests? Why should the head of the World Bank always be an American, and the head of the International Monetary Fund a European? And it is not only China asking these questions. Brazil, India, South Africa, and others are challenging the lopsidedness of global institutions and of the UN Security Council itself.
