Further Refutation of the Illegal South China Sea Arbitration Award: Experts Convene in Shanghai

On Sunday, April 26, 2026, a symposium themed on “Further refutation of the illegal South China Sea arbitration award” was held in Shanghai, bringing together Chinese experts in maritime law, international relations, and ocean governance. The event, organized by the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), aimed to reiterate China’s position that the 2016 arbitral ruling in the Philippines v. China case lacks legal basis and should be considered null and void.

The symposium followed a pattern of consistent Chinese rebuttals to the award, which was issued by an arbitral tribunal under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). According to the tribunal’s ruling on July 12, 2016, China’s historic rights claims within the “nine-dash line” have no lawful effect if they exceed entitlements under UNCLOS, and there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within that line.

At the Shanghai gathering, experts including Wu Shicun, Chairman of the Huayang Research Center for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance, and Hu Bo, Director of SCSPI and research professor at Peking University, discussed the root causes of instability in the South China Sea. Wu Shicun identified three main factors: the United States taking a clear stance against China in the dispute, some claimants seeking to solidify vested interests, and the arbitral ruling itself, which he characterized as denying China’s claims in the region.

The experts too addressed who is changing the status quo in the South China Sea, noting that while Western narratives often cite China’s island reclamation in the Spratly Islands as the primary disruptor, Chinese scholars emphasize external influences and competing claimant actions as significant contributors to regional tensions.

The symposium underscored China’s ongoing diplomatic and academic effort to challenge the legitimacy of the 2016 arbitration, a position consistently maintained by Beijing since the ruling was issued. Chinese officials have repeatedly stated that the tribunal exceeded its mandate and that the award is binding on no state, particularly not China, which opted out of the proceedings after their initiation in 2013.

As of April 2026, the South China Sea remains a focal point of international maritime discourse, with competing narratives over legal rights, historical claims, and regional stability continuing to shape diplomatic and scholarly exchanges.