It's not just ISIS and the Ukraine

China is slowly stealing the west Philippine sea from the Philippines, Brunai, Viet nam etc.

of course it's illegal (treaty of 1994? What treaty of 1994?)

and the ghost in the story:

 China will back off when the United States (or even Japan or Taiwan) move through disputed waters with warships but will continue to go after unarmed “intruders”. The Philippines and its neighbors need an ally who is willing and able to stick around and get China to back off. So far, such an ally has not appeared.

here, things are back to almost normal.

we have a partial harvest in our higher fields, which is good news