James Borton in Dispatches from the South China Sea primarily dwells on the interactions between humans and the environment in the South China Sea. Through his journalistic acumen, Borton intricately embarks upon anthropogenic catastrophes such as coral reef destruction, overfishing, illegal annihilation of sovereign territories, evolving environmental refugee crisis (both forced and motivated environmental migration), over-exploitation of resources by China to mention a few. Therein, Borton dwells on the failures of regional governments (past and present), civil societies, non-government organizations (NGOs), and multinational bodies under the UN. The principle argument underpins how these various stakeholders, driven by their ‘altruistic’ motives and visions, often are the culprits of their own ‘perverted’ visions in praxis.