In the wake of last month's legal curb stomping of China's sweeping claims to nearly all of the South China Sea, observers have been anxiously watching to see how Beijing would digest the ruling. This week they got their answer: Not well at all. And apparently all Beijing's troubles are America's fault.

In the past few days, all three Chinese naval fleets have taken to the sea to practice for a "sudden, cruel, and short" conflict. China's Defence Minister, Chang Wanquan, called for a "people's war at sea" to fend off any threats to Chinese "sovereignty" over distant reefs and rocks.

More ominously, perhaps, China has also changed its laws to arrest and jail anyone caught fishing in waters Beijing considers its own, even though many of those waters are precisely the bits that are disputed among China's neighbours in the South China Sea.

Before, Chinese coast guard vessels would just chase away foreign fishermen, perhaps confiscating their boats. The stiffer penalties now, according to Chinese media, are meant to provide a legal justification for more aggressive Chinese patrols around the disputed shoals and islets.