Xi Jinping complicates France state visit with water cannon attacks in the Philippines

China is ramping up its aggressive effort to subjugate an American treaty defense ally and plunder the ally's resources. Geography is key here. The Scarborough Shoal is 142 miles west of the mainland of the Philippines, well within its exclusive economic zone, and 534 miles southeast of China's Hainan Island. Nevertheless, the Chinese Communist Party claims the shoal and the near entirety of the rest of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory. International arbitrators and the vast majority of the international community recognize these claims as utterly devoid of legal standing. The three maps below tell the tale….