Around 80 experts and scholars from universities, research institutes, and think tanks in China attended an academic exchange conference on ocean governance and development in Dalian City, northeast China's Liaoning Province, on Friday.Themed "Refuting and responding to the Arbitral Award on the South China Sea: A Chinese perspective," the conference is hosted by Dalian Maritime University.
Conference attendees engaged in in-depth discussions and exchanges on topics such as the legal refutation of the Arbitral Award on the South China Sea, the situation and tasks in the South China Sea, and national ocean governance and development."Shan Hongjun, president of Dalian Maritime University, said during the conference that the South China Sea issue concerns national sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.
Shan called on universities and think tanks to fully utilize their academic research advantages to contribute to safeguarding national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, as well as promoting China's voice on the international stage.Wu Shicun, director of the academic committee and senior research fellow of China's National Institute for South China Sea Studies and also chairman of the Huayang Research Center for Maritime Co-operation and Ocean Governance, said the arbitral award has become a key factor in the complexity of the South China Sea situation due to its serious legal flaws and political manipulation.It serves as a tool for external countries to repeatedly raise the South China Sea issue and stigmatize China, portraying it as a "troublemaker" for peace and stability in the South China Sea and a "root cause" of the region's instability, Wu said.Experts at the conference emphasized that China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea are based on solid historical and legal grounds.
They argued that the arbitral award disregarded the basic facts of the South China Sea, was a politically staged farce, and violated international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.They believe that all parties involved in the South China Sea should work toward the early adoption of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea to provide strong institutional safeguards for maintaining peace and stability in the region.Dalian Maritime University also released the China's Maritime Law Development Report (2025) at the conference.(Cover: A view of Nansha Qundao in the South China Sea.
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