None of the South China Sea’s atolls is as disputed as the Scarborough Shoal, which lies in the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone, but which China claims as its own. On Sunday, Philippine defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro warned that China may be preparing to take permanent control. 

China’s response was predictable. Its U.S. Embassy was quick to admonish Teodoro, claiming “indisputable sovereignty” over the shoal. Authoritarian states leverage their diplomatic channels to bend the truth, but China is unrivaled in the art of highly reactive propaganda.