Washington’s outsider position undercuts its message as it urges China to respect global maritime norms, said an article bylined by Hannah Beech, East Asia Bureau Chief of the TIME Magazine.

In the article titled “China Will Never Respect the U.S. Over the South China Sea. Here’s Why,” the author explained that the U.S. is one of the most vocal countries urging China to hew to international order. However, the U.S. refuses to play by international rules, declining to ratify a major U.N. convention to which more than 160 other countries are party. After years of complaints, the nation convinces the U.N. to tweak the treaty to many of its specifications. Yet even after those amendments, the great power’s legislature prioritizes protectionist sentiment over respect for global rule of law.

“Washington’s outsider position undercuts its message as it urges China to respect global maritime norms. After all, China ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) in 1996,” said the Time article.

The U.S. Navy will continue to ply the high seas, acting as the world’s oceanic policeman by engaging in freedom-of-navigation exercises. But American hypocrisy when it comes to maritime rule of law looks likely to endure, it added.