An interesting anecdote related to this: a friend of mine has done research at a marine biology institute based out of Hong Kong. Basically his work was in iden

An interesting anecdote related to this: a friend of mine has done research at a marine biology institute based out of Hong Kong. Basically his work was in identifying and counting gastropods on islands in the South China Sea. A year or so after his paper was published, as I understand it, he was approached by the Chinese government about fabricating data that would provide a biological basis for the claim that man-made islands in the South China Sea (created by the Chinese government) ought to be counted toward the territorial waters making up China's exclusive economic zone. Unfortunately I never got the details, but it was fascinating to hear the broad strokes.