Over 150 scholars and representatives from more than 10 countries and regions gathered in Beijing on Thursday for the Workshop on History and Reality of the South China Sea 2025, with some urging external powers to cease interference and calling for regional cooperation to maintain stability in the water.
In the event, participants from China, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and beyond emphasized that dialogue between directly concerned parties -- not outside intervention -- offers the only viable path forward.
The conference, held nine years after the controversial South China Sea arbitration ruling, featured robust discussions on the region's history and challenges.
Wu Shicun, president of National Institute for South China Sea Studies, presented historical evidence supporting China's sovereignty claims, while criticizing other nations' "illegal occupation" of islands.
"China's recovery of the Nanhai Islands and the resumption of its sovereignty over them have formed part of the post-WWII international order. The root cause of the South China Sea disputes lies in the illegal occupation of certain islands and reefs of China's Nansha Islands by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and other countries since the 1970s," Wu said.
Experts from various fields including international politics and law unanimously pointed out that the 2016 South China Sea arbitration has failed -- and could never have succeeded -- in bringing prosperity and stability to the region. On the contrary, it has emboldened certain countries both within and outside the region to escalate provocations in the South China Sea, which undermines regional peace and stability.
"In my opinion, the involvement of these extra regional powers and other user states in the South China Sea are in fact complicating the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea by parties concern because they are disrupting the the efforts towards the peaceful cooperation in the area. So I think it's better for these extra regional powers to just watch and see, but not to get deeply involved and allow all parties concerned in the South China Sea dispute to settle the problem among themselves," said Rommel C. Banlaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace.
"Certain countries, driven by their own interests, have willfully disregarded historical facts and violated the spirit of international law. By challenging the post-war international order, stoking tensions, provoking incidents, and creating disputes in the South China Sea, they have severely undermined regional peace and stability," said Li Guoqiang, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of History.
Participants agreed that maritime disputes should be properly resolved through dialogue and consultation among the directly concerned parties.
"Political disputes cannot be solved by judicial means, so in my personal opinion we need here either negotiations or mediations. It could be a good solution of the problem. But this means, implies cooperation of all countries of the region," said Vladimir Tolstykh, a professor with the Institute of Oriental Studies under the Russian Academy of Science.
Experts call for end to external interference in South China Sea
