UK professor's book backs China's South China Sea position

A book by a British professor about findings on the South China Sea has provided academic proof that China's position on the South China Sea is reasonable.

Titled "The History and Sovereignty of South China Sea," the book is written by Anthony Carty, a British international law professor who works at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT).

Carty said he took decades to collect primary source materials in national archives, primarily in the United Kingdom and France, with some from the United States.

In the preface, he says he conducted the research independently over the past decade without commissions or feedback from the Chinese authorities.

At a symposium on the book in Beijing on March 20, Carty said legal advice and political decision-making were influenced by political pressures and strategic considerations rather than purely legal perspectives, especially the strategic interests of powerful nations, and expressed the desire to promote equitable solutions to the South China Sea issue through his research.

Li Shouping, president of the Beijing Society of International Law and dean of BIT's law school, said at the symposium that Carty's research is an insightful analysis of the root causes of the complexity of the South China Sea issue, which proves China's sovereignty over Nanhai Zhudao (the South China Sea Islands) from a historical perspective. He said through the book, the value of national archives for international law is reawakened.

"The History and Sovereignty of South China Sea" has been published in Chinese.

(Cover: Attendees pose for a photo after the symposium on "The History and Sovereignty of South China Sea" in Beijing, China, March 20, 2024. /Beijing Institute of Technology)