On 4 December 2014, the international conference entitled “A New Type of Maritime Security in East Asia: Harmonizing Chinese and American Visions of Order” was held at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies (NISCSS). This conference was co-organized by the NISCSS, Cornell University and the School of International Studies of Peking University.

Present at the conference were more than 20 scholars and experts from research institutions and universities, including Cornell University, U.S. Center for Naval Analysis, U.S. National Defense University, U.S. Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Peking University, the NISCSS, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Navy Military Academic Research Institute, Shanghai Jiaotong University. Five panels of the two-day conference include: US-China “NTGPR” and East Asian Maritime Disputes; Points of Contact between PRC “Maritime Rights and Interests” and US “National Interests”; the Role of International Law; Coordination, Cooperation and Crisis Management; Regional Perspectives on U.S.-China Maritime Relations.

The NISCSS President Wu Shicun and Dean Jia Qingguo of the School of International Studies of Peking University delivered a speech respectively at the opening ceremony. President Wu talked about the history of the institute. Founded in 1996 and upgraded to a national-level institute in 2004, the NISCSS has been committed to research in the South China Sea issue, and has achieved fruitful results. As President Wu remarked, in recent years, the maritime situation in the Asia-Pacific region has largely been stable, but all the countries should continue to strengthen mutual trust to maintain maritime peace and stability. As Dean Jia remarked, since the current situation in the South China Sea has been changing and the involvement of outside powers increased the complexity of South China Sea disputes, China and the United States should seek common grounds while shelving differences in building the regional security mechanisms, and strive to move toward a higher level of cooperation. He hoped that the discussion among all the experts and scholars would yield fruitful results.

This seminar came amid rising maritime disputes and increasingly complex geopolitical situation in East Asia. The scholars and experts had a candid and in-depth discussion around the five panels, generally agreeing that a new type of great-power relationship, mutual trust and US-China cooperation are of great significance to a peaceful solution to the maritime disputes in East Asia. It’s believed that the success of this conference will contribute to U.S.-China exchanges and cooperation in maritime security.