After more than three decades of waiting, 63-year-old retired ­maritime inspector Zhang Jie is frustrated the international ­community has not formalised a way to work together in the South China Sea. His ambition is for some kind of state-led agreement to cover maritime rescues and environmental conservation. Dr Collin Koh, a Research Fellow at RSIS said: “There’s hard data to show that the Chinese outposts do serve their utility in providing those common public goods to foreigners, [but] the perception that these outposts are designed to further Beijing’s objectives of asserting its physical domination and enhancing control over the disputed waters cannot be easily glossed over.”