China-South China Sea/Expert

Expert slams so-called South China Sea arbitration as political farce

  • English
  • 日本語
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  • ID : 8489006
  • Dateline : July 12, 2026/Recent/File
  • Location : China
  • Category : Politics/Other
  • Duration : 1'56
  • Audio Language : Chinese/Nats/Part Mute
  • Source : China Central Television (CCTV)
  • Restrictions : No access Chinese mainland
  • Published : 2026-07-12 14:09
  • Last Modified : 2026-07-12 21:44:12
  • Version : 1
  • ID : 8489006
  • Dateline : 2026年7月12日/最近/資料
  • Category : Politics/Other
  • Duration : 1'56
  • Audio Language : 中国語/自然音声/一部音声なし
  • Source : China Central Television (CCTV)
  • Restrictions : 中国大陸での使用は不可
  • Published : 2026-07-12 21:36
  • Last Modified : 2026-07-12 21:44:12
  • Version : 1

China-South China Sea/Expert

Expert slams so-called South China Sea arbitration as political farce

Dateline : July 12, 2026/Recent/File

Location : China

Duration : 1'56

  • English
  • 日本語


FILE: South China Sea - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shots of sea, reefs, beach, seagulls

Haikou City, Hainan Province, south China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Wu Shicun, chairman, Huayang Center for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance; director, Academic Committee, National Institute for South China Sea Studies (partially overlaid with shots 3-6):
"What is the essence of the dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea? Since the 1970s, the Philippines has illegally occupied eight islands and reefs of China's Nansha Islands -- excluding the Ren'ai Reef -- through repeated military actions. This is the real essence of the China-Philippines dispute over the South China Sea: it is a territorial dispute, a dispute over maritime delimitation and a dispute over maritime jurisdiction. Then the Philippines initiated the arbitration. We used to describe the so-called 'Arbitral Tribunal' as a ragtag group, and I think this description is not strong enough -- it was intended to whitewash the Philippines' illegal claims and infringements time and again. The 'arbitration' was nothing but a political farce orchestrated behind the scenes by the United States, with Japan cooperating and the then Philippine government under (former Philippine President) Benigno Aquino III acting as a puppet."
++SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

FILE: Manila, Philippines - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Philippine national flag

FILE: Manila, Philippines - Nov 13, 2018 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
4. Various of Philippine national flags, Rizal Monument

FILE: South China Sea - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Aerial shots of sea

FILE: Washington D.C., USA - Oct 2024 (CCTV Video News Agency - No access Chinese mainland)
6. U.S. national flag
++SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

FILE: South China Sea - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Aerial shots of sea

FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. National flag of Japan

FILE: Tokyo, Japan - November 2025 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
9. Japanese prime minister's office

FILE: South China Sea - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
10. Various of coral reefs, sea

Haikou City, Hainan Province, south China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Wu Shicun, chairman, Huayang Center for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance; director, Academic Committee, National Institute for South China Sea Studies (starting with shots 7-10/ending with shots 12-13):
"I believe the composition of the 'Arbitral Tribunal' itself had serious flaws. The Philippines appointed one arbitrator to represent its interests, while the other four [arbitrators] were appointed by the then president of the (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea), who is a Japanese judge with a clear anti-China bias and a key political advisor to the Shinzo Abe cabinet. As a result, all the arbitrators he selected came from Europe. They had no understanding of Asian affairs, let alone any knowledge of the South China Sea issue. That is why I say this may become a scandal in the history of international arbitration. How can such a 'arbitration' be implemented? In my view, it is not only illegal and invalid, but also utterly ridiculous."

FILE: South China Sea, China - April 30, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
12. Aerial shots of China Coast Guard (CCG) ships conducting patrols
13. China Coast Guard officer holding telescope


The 2016 "South China Sea arbitration", unilaterally initiated by the Philippines under manipulation by the United States and trumpeting by Japan, was just a political farce while the so-called "arbitral ruling" in the case is nothing but illegal, invalid and ridiculous, according to a senior Chinese expert on the South China Sea issue.

Wu Shicun, chairman of the Huayang Center for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance, and director of the Academic Committee of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, made the statement in an exclusive interview with China Media Group prior to the 10th anniversary of the illegal "arbitral ruling" in the "South China Sea arbitration" case which falls on Sunday.

The Philippines unilaterally initiated the "arbitration" on the disputes over the South China Sea between China and the Philippines in January 2013, and the Chinese government solemnly declared in the following month that it would neither accept nor participate in that so-called "arbitration" and has since repeatedly stated that position.

In the interview, Wu said the essence of the "South China Sea arbitration" case was to use arbitration as a means to deny China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.

"What is the essence of the dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea? Since the 1970s, the Philippines has illegally occupied eight islands and reefs of China's Nansha Islands -- excluding the Ren'ai Reef -- through repeated military actions. This is the real essence of the China-Philippines dispute over the South China Sea: it is a territorial dispute, a dispute over maritime delimitation and a dispute over maritime jurisdiction. Then the Philippines initiated the arbitration," Wu said.

"We used to describe the so-called 'Arbitral Tribunal' as a ragtag group, and I think this description is not strong enough -- it was intended to whitewash the Philippines' illegal claims and infringements time and again. The 'arbitration' was nothing but a political farce orchestrated behind the scenes by the United States, with Japan cooperating and the then Philippine government under (former Philippine President) Benigno Aquino III acting as a puppet," he said.

Many experts have also questioned the impartiality and legitimacy of the "Arbitral Tribunal."

The Philippines' "South China Sea Arbitration" was meant to package a territorial sovereignty dispute as a maritime rights dispute, in an attempt to use the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to resolve it. In reality, however, territorial sovereignty disputes fall outside the jurisdiction of the UNCLOS. This constitutes an abuse of the UNCLOS dispute settlement mechanism and undermines the rule of law in the oceans.

"I believe the composition of the 'Arbitral Tribunal' itself had serious flaws. The Philippines appointed one arbitrator to represent its interests, while the other four [arbitrators] were appointed by the then president of the (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea), who is a Japanese judge with a clear anti-China bias and a key political advisor to the Shinzo Abe cabinet," Wu said.

"As a result, all the arbitrators he selected came from Europe. They had no understanding of Asian affairs, let alone any knowledge of the South China Sea issue. That is why I say this may become a scandal in the history of international arbitration. How can such a 'arbitration' be implemented? In my view, it is not only illegal and invalid, but also utterly ridiculous," said the expert.

ID : 8489006

Published : 2026-07-12 14:09

Last Modified : 2026-07-12 21:44:12

Source : China Central Television (CCTV)

Restrictions : No access Chinese mainland

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