> The 'international rules-based order' was established by the US at the end of WWII as the legal framework for rebuilding Europe after the war.
The 'international rules-based order' is used today by the U.S. to imply to a naive reader that they mean international law as defined by the UN, whereas in fact they mean the world order where they're the world police, which essentially started after WWII and really kicked into another gear in the 90s when the U.S became the undisputed dominant power.
The phrase today is used merely as a ploy to suggest the U.S. is not acting alone/without UN approval in cases it in fact does precisely that.
> Honest question, what makes you think the US, China, or Russia need to abide by legal agreements made 80 years ago by people who aren't around anymore?
I dunno. I would like things like the Geneva Conventions to outlive their original authors, thank you very much.
As an aside, I don't think China's foreign policy can be casually compared to that of the U.S.