Comment

Peter Hartcher

Peter Hartcher is the political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a Gold Walkley award winner, a former foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Washington, and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. His latest book is The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made its Own Luck and Could Now Throw it All Away. His 2005 book, Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing Seven Trillion Dollars, foresaw the collapse of the US housing market and the economic slump that followed.

A Chinese H-6K bomber patrols the islands and reefs in the South China Sea.

China has defied the rules with impunity

We hear a great gush of affirmations of the "rules-based order" that keeps the peace in the Asia-Pacific region. But whose rules? They must be Tinkerbell's rules – clap if you believe.