Canadian scholar blasts Western media for "inaccurate and unhelpful" reporting on South China Sea

Quite a number of Western press stories on the South China Sea issue have been both inaccurate and unhelpful, said a Canadian scholar on politics here on Wednesday.

"You will almost always see in Western press stories on the South China Sea the statement that China claimed almost the entire South China Sea, this is factually incorrect," said David Welch, professor of political science at Canada's University of Waterloo.

"The Chinese has never officially said that," he said at the 30th Asia-Pacific Roundtable.

Furthermore, on the media coverage, readers almost always see reference to "China's aggressive behavior or China's aggressive land reclamation in the South China Sea."

"The Chinese could be doing what China is doing in the South China Sea for a variety of reasons; only some could count as aggressive, there are defensive reasons," said Welch.

"Labeling China's behavior as aggressive... in effect contributes to the demonization of China," he said.

Welch also took aim at claims in Western reports that freedom of navigation operations in the sea and over the air "routinely prompt Chinese threats and warnings."

"If you pay close attention, you will notice there are never threats or warnings. China never says go away or we will do this, China never locks weapons radar on international FONOPs (freedom of navigation operations) by jets," he said.

"I said this because if we read the international press you will get the impression that China is hostile, and it's not obviously true," he told the forum.

On the sidelines of the Roundtable, Welch criticized the Western media for the low-quality reporting on the South China Sea and proposed the Chinese media do constructive reporting as a counter-measure.

He said press crossfire is unhelpful in solving the problem but will only aggravate the situation.

He said the tribunal arbitration underway in The Hague regarding the South China Sea issue will only deep tensions. He suggested the Philippines and China show signs of goodwill and resolve the issue through dialogue as soon as possible. Endi