China and the US clashed over the South China Seaat a defence forum this weekend, with a Chineseadmiral warning Washington that “we have no fear oftrouble”.Tensions surrounding these contested waters havebeen rising amid island-building by Beijing, increasednaval and air patrols by the US and the expectationthat an international court will soon rule on anarbitration case brought by the Philippines against China’s expansive maritime claims.China has been trying to find other nations such as Russia that are willing to support itsrejection of the legitimacy of the permanent court of arbitration in The Hague. Meanwhile,the US, the EU and Japan have said they support the right of the Philippines to bring the caseunder the provisions of the UN law of the sea, which the US itself has not ratified.Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the joint staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,on Sunday blamed the US for exacerbating the disputes by “openly showing its militarymuscle” and supporting “allies that are confronting China and forcing China to accept anyarbitration award”.“China firmly opposes such behaviour,” he told an audience of defence ministers, generals andanalysts at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security forum in Singapore.“We do not maketrouble but we have no fear of trouble.”He also hit back at the claim made in Singapore a day earlier by Ashton Carter, the USsecretary of defence, that China was building a “great wall of self-isolation” because of itsaggressive approach to the other claimants to these waters, including the Philippines andVietnam.“Some countries are still looking at China with a cold war prejudice,” said Adm Sun.“They maybuild a wall in their mind and end up isolating themselves.”But it was not just the US raising concerns about China’s assertive stance and its oppositionto involvement of The Hague court, which is expected to rule within months on the Philippines’case against Beijing’s “nine-dash line” claim to almost the whole South China Sea.A succession of defence ministers and senior officials from Vietnam, Japan and other Asiannations as well as outside powers such as the UK and France repeated Mr Carter’s call for Chinaand other nations to respect the outcome of the arbitration process and act in accordancewith international law.“This is a matter of the utmost importance,” said Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s defence minister.“If the law of the sea is not respected today in the China seas, it will be threatened tomorrowin the Arctic, the Mediterranean or elsewhere.”Michael Fallon, the UK defence secretary, said it would be a “mistake” for China to defy thetribunal.“We need to keep working to show China that its position is relatively isolated,” he said.“Andone day, as China rises as a world power and develops ambitions for its blue-water navy, thetime will come when China needs to rely on the provisions of these international conventions.”