2016年CRI More voices to support China's Stance on South China Sea issue（在线收听）

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen says a non-ASEAN country tried to persuade Cambodia and other ASEAN countries to support the South China Sea arbitration.

"A month ago, an ambassador of a country visited me, and said he hoped that Cambodia would support one voice of ASEAN, after the release of the result of the South China Sea arbitration. I asked immediately what does the one voice mean. The ambassador replied that it is to support the arbitration of the international tribunal. Then, I asked again whether the ambassador knew the result of the arbitration beforehand. This is not about law. This is a political event, and I do not support it."

Rod Kapunan is a columnist with the Philippine's daily newspaper The Standard.

"If American position is simply to justify its presence by using our make believe conflict with China and the presence of the 7th fleet of the US Navy is something which is a threat, more of a threat to the peace and security in the region."

On Tuesday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies' 6th annual South China Sea Conference was held in Washington, which coincided with South China Sea arbitration decision issued at The Hague. The tribunal's decision has become the major topic for discussion among participants from the United States, China, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Keynote speaker U.S. senator Dan Sullivan advocated continuing the strong U.S. military presence in the South China Sea to ensure the right of free navigation and the security of U.S. allies.

Brendan Mulvaney, an officer with the UN Naval War College, argued that resorting to military deterrence is not conducive to solving the South China Sea issues, and peaceful negotiation is the only alternative.

"That's not going to solve the problem. It's going to impose harm and negative consequences on all parties. And at the end of the day we'll be back to where we started with no resolutions."

Bill Jones is Washington Bureau Chief for the Executive Intelligence Review.

"Already they've had comments by legal scholars, you've had comments by other countries who were opposed to the fact of this going to arbitration. The arbitration itself by many people was seen as an ambush that is trying to get a decision on a matter that people generally regarded must be negotiated between the parties in the region."

Other US participants at the conference also said that they fully support China's position of not accepting the decision of the tribunal.

For CRI, I am Liu Yuanhui.