/ AFP PHOTO / NOEL CELIS (Photo credit should read NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images)
In a recent speech at Columbia University last week, former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had advice to America and China regarding the South China Sea: learn how to "co-evolve," share leadership, that is.
Given the importance of the huge waterway for trade between the two countries and trade among Asian countries -- which has grown exponentially in recent decades, fostering prosperity for China. 
The problem is that Washington and Beijing have different perceptions of what the South China Sea is. Washington and its allies think of the body of water as an open sea. Beijing thinks that it is its own sea. All of it.

That’s why Beijing wants to write its own navigation rules.
And that’s in spite of last year’s international arbitration ruling, which determined that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea.
The ruling was a big victory for the Philippines, which filed the case back in 2013 under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the primary treaty governing international maritime law.
Worse, China has been bullying any country that wants to explore and exploit the resources hidden below the sea. Back in August, for instance, Beijing told Vietnam and India to stop searching for oil in the region, or else risk an attack on the oil and gas bases. Then in September, it demanded that Indonesia recall its decision to rename its maritime region in the southwest part of the South China Sea as the “North Natuna Sea,” asserting its own sovereignty in the area.
Meanwhile, America and its allies continue to perform join exercises in the region, treating South China Sea regardless of China’s protests.