Beijing banks on fractured ASEAN

Last week marked the first time senior officials from the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) met after the landmark ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague on the South China Sea.

The ruling awarded to the Philippines earlier this month, has been roundly viewed as a rebuke on China’s expansionist claims in the South China Sea and upends any legal standing to its ambiguous reference to the so-called “nine-dash line”, which encompasses most of the critical waterway.