In this episode of The Negotiation, we speak with Gordon Houlden, Director and Professor of Political Science at the China Institute, as well as an adjunct professor of business at the Alberta School of Business, at the University of Alberta. We begin our conversation with a brief history of China’s maritime geography and how their Navy has grown to surpass the United States in the quantity of ‘hulls in the water’. We talk about the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the limitations of the International agreement, particularly when it comes to historical claims. We compare China’s actions in the South China Sea to their stated intentions publicly and explore the reasons why China cares about other maritime regions such as Antarctica and the Arctic despite not having any borders nearby. We also discuss the feasibility of all the South China Sea nations being able to come together on an agreement, and the necessary steps that would need to be taken for that to come to fruition.