To start, it is appropriate to say what this book is not about: in its pages,
readers will not find a discussion of the evolution of the territorial and
maritime disputes in the South China Sea. Nor does it add to, and engage
with, the already highly extensive academic literature on the disputes that
has narrowly focused on China’s assertive or expansionist behaviour and
its ‘salami-slicing’ strategy as a means to change the status quo incrementally in China’s favour.1