Resolving the Disputes in the South China Sea

The contemporary disputes in the South China Sea are commonly regarded as intractable and irresolvable. This presentation will argue the opposite. It will show that it is not necessary to understand the entire history of the South China Sea to reach a judgement on the overlapping claims. What is required is an examination of the evidence put forward by the contesting claimants. Nationalistic claims to large groups of features can be tested by disaggregating them and seeking evidence for actual occupation of specific features. This opens a way forward based upon compromise and the recognition of the status quo.

One of the speakers is Bill Hayton, Associate Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a full-time journalist with BBC News in London. In 2006/7 he was the BBC’s reporter in Vietnam and in 2013 he spent a year advising the Myanmar state broadcaster on media reform. He is the author of Vietnam: rising dragon (Yale, 2010), The South China Sea: the struggle for power in Asia (Yale, 2014) and ‘The invention of China (Yale, 2020 - forthcoming). He writes about political and regional developments in Southeast Asia and recently received his PhD from the University of Cambridge.

We are looking forward to meeting with you at the lecture.