Ashton Carter, US secretary of defence, led a chorus of international voices criticising China at the weekend Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security forum in Singapore, warning that Beijing seems to be building “a great wall of self-isolation” in Asia.

But defence officials and analysts say the rhetorical battle against Beijing's territorial ambitions in the South China Sea obscures the fact that China has succeeded in changing the status quo in these resource-rich waters.

“Last year everyone was warning about the threat from China’s island-building plans but they’ve now constructed runways for fighters, ports and radar facilities in the South China Sea,” said one European diplomat in Singapore. “They’ve altered the facts on the water and there is nothing anyone can do about it now.”