Professor cites historic records backing sovereignty

In the aftermath of the arbitral ruling presented by The Hague's Arbitral Tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on July 12, John Anthony Carty, a professor at Tsinghua University, is among a number of international academics and maritime experts who are now questioning the decision's denial of Chinese rights in the South China Sea.

Carty said that he has studied centuries worth of records produced by European nations and the United States. These official accounts - excepting a period in the 1930s when France unilaterally seized individual South China Sea islands under Chinese protest - recognize China's historic sovereignty over the islands.

The British scholar spoke on the topic of historic rights at a two-day international forum on maritime dispute settlement held in Hong Kong on Friday and Saturday.