China has also proved that it deals with its smaller neighbors with due respect and treats them as equals. China and Vietnam, for instance, solved their land border dispute long ago through bilateral negotiations, with China making quite a few concessions.
"This case proved that it is unfair to call China a big bully to smaller nations," Zheng said.
In Zheng's opinion, China has tried to avoid creating a hype over the South China Sea issue. It is not the first country to carry out reclamation and building projects on the islands and reefs as countries like the Philippines and Vietnam had long been doing this.
Even in the face of U.S. interference, China has not wavered in its pursuit of regional peace and stability.
NO WINNERS
The U.S.-backed approach of making the South China Sea disputes an international and increasingly complicated geopolitical issue will be costly to all parties concerned, Zheng said.
While it is not in the interests of China to see a hype over the South China Sea issue, China will have to respond to provocations. It absolutely has the capacity to resist U.S.-backed provocative acts if necessary.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) faces a dilemma as some of its members try to impose their disputes with China onto the ASEAN platform against the will of other members.
Zheng said the region has been less stable since the United States interfered with its policy of "pivot to Asia."
Moreover, it is not necessarily in the interests of even the claimant states to internationalize the South China Sea disputes.
"Some of the politicians are doing it out of political considerations with no regard for their national interests," Zheng said.
The U.S. interference is a strategic miscalculation and carries a cost for the United States.
The interests of the regional countries and those of the United States are not always the same. "While there is national interests convergence between the United States and these (claimant) states in some areas, the maximization of national interests of these states is not necessarily in the interests of the United States," Zheng said.
"It benefits the United States little with its interference; its intervention has only brought forward a lose-lose situation for all concerned," he added.
Zheng said China has shown unwavering strength in face of pressure on the South China Sea issue.
"China needs to be patient, as rationality is borne from patience," he said.
