@DVK9 - you have the right of it with regards to understanding how those treaties and so forth are handled by the big signatories.
The UN treaties are not there to create a law that is followed by those who created them. They are there to create a law to inhibit parties from being able to get an advantage over others, I'm not talking conspiracy I'm talking our normal human attitude of wanting an advantage in any particular field. In the case of the OST the world had become a militarised arena and the military thinking wanted supremacy in the space arena. No one wanted the other parties (especially a new party to the field) to put weapons up there floating overhead. So the treaty was designed to inhibit people from easily getting to space and to ensure that states held responsibility and liability for space objects. In effect this meant that only a state could enter humans into space as they had to take liability for any individual or business that launched bodies into space from their state held territory.
As with everything in life, larger controlling states who already have vested interests in space will naturally be the first to modify the interpretation of any treaty to suit their own ends. This is evident in the sth china sea example you mentioned. We already know that both the russians and the usa put weapons into space long ago and now we have the chinese who have demonstrated abilities in military satellites which indicate they are probably weaponised.
This brings us to the issue with Asgardia. Firstly it needs to be a state to launch or own bodies in space. Secondly It needs to be signatory to the relevant treaties or it will be regarded as a rogue state (witness north korean situation). Under these circumstances the larger states can feel justified in any action they take against a group like asgardia if it doesn't comply.
So what does Asgardia do? Exactly what Dr Ashurbeyli has put in progress.
a) Go through the long and arduous task of getting peer recognition as a state. This involves a number of things which have nothing to do with engineering or space it is purely about peer recognition. This peer recognition revolves around acceptability and that means deference to current laws and treaties whether we like them or not.
b) Get involved and recognised as serious investors and participants in the scientific and space industries. This involves contributing to multiple projects and events, proposing and supporting serious, recognised scientific projects which benefit the industry and humanity in general.
c) build a community and support base that are contributing and are willing to forego their current society to form the new state.
d) show a pattern and documented form of organisation with goals, structure and design that benefits those individuals within the support base and outside parties with whom they come into contact.
At this point representation and involvement of the Asgardian project to and with the rest of the world is the most important part of this process. This means we have to work within the boundaries of all UN treaties and international law so that none of the other players can damage the recognition process or stop the organisation from being formed. So the focus shouldn't be on how we don't like something the UN or "powers that be" have created. The focus should be on how do we utilise these tools to get to where we want to be. Remember, in the minds of the military (who hold sway over government in the current world) we are essentially proposing to create a state which will want to defend it's territory - and that territory will be floating above their heads in space. If we go outside the rules that have been set up by whomever is in power there won't be any Asgardia - I think it is safe to say that none of us has the political, social or financial power to go up against the "powers that be".
This is what we are dealing with and every vague law and treaty will be utilised to try and regulate and/or stop a situation in which "society" thinks will give them a disadvantage or where we have any perceived military capability which they don't control. The legalities and the current law are important and are all we have to work with. If we are to have discussions about space law let's actually discuss the laws - download them, read them, post them and discuss how they can be utilised and worked within to further the process of creating Asgardia. This would seem to be a productive use of the forum.