'Taiwan has no right to Itu Aba, also called Taiping, the largest island in the Spratlys.'

According to what I have read, that court has "no right" to assign which islet/reef, etc to which country. All that it has is to decide what sea area each rock/islet/island has around it.

I also wonder on what basis it says that the Taiping is not an island but merely a piece of rock!!!

'the United States challenged China's export duties on nine metals and minerals that are important to the aerospace, auto, electronics and chemical industries.'

Off hand, I remember that the US denied China to buy one of its smallish oil firm and oil was important to China's industries.

About a year ago, the US also banned the sale to China of the fastest Intel processor chip, which is also very important to China's supercomputer industry. China then manufactured it own processor chip for the purpose. Why don't the US manufacture its own "metals and minerals that are important to the aerospace, auto, electronics and chemical industries"?