US and allies must intervene in waters China is trying to claim

China has feigned outrage at the US sailing a warship within 20km of one of its islands. It’s all about it wanting to protect military power, writes Bill Emmott

The sailing of a US warship within 20km of one of China’s new artificial islands in the South China Sea represents the most daring American military intervention in years.

Not since president Bill Clinton sent a naval group through the Taiwan Strait in 1996 as a supportive gesture to the then-beleaguered Taiwanese has the US so boldly defied China’s unlawful territorial claims.