There is this desert fable about a wealthy Arab who bequeaths 17 camels to his three sons, with instructions that the eldest be given half the lot, the middle son a third, while the youngest is to get a ninth as his share.

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To an extent, let’s face it, it has already succeeded with its strategic goals in the South China Sea. Possession, they say, is 90 per cent of law. As Ms Yun Sun, a senior associate at the Henry L. Stimson Centre in Washington, put it: “By building something out of nothing, China has harvested many things.”