In her statement at an online seminar on the East Sea (internationally known as South China Sea) issue on May 15, the Malaysian expert said since early 2020, the East Sea has become a hot spot witnessing China’s provocations against regional countries. China has deployed a large number of fishing vessels to Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) and conducted dangerous provocative and disturbing acts. It abused the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic in regional countries to increase tension in the East Sea causing international concern, particularly about a Chinese Coast Guard vessel's sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat with 8 fishermen on board on April 2.

China’s repeated provocations over the past years, its illegal construction of rocks and other facilities in the East Sea, and illegal establishment of the so-called “Nansha” and “XIsha” in Vietnam’s sovereign waters are China’s intentional steps to realize its ambition of monopolizing the East Sea through the project called "Blue Sea 2020". She said it’s important to accelerate negotiation on the adoption of the Code of Conduct in the East Sea in the near future. But the outcomes of the negotiation will likely be different from previously if recent developments in the East Sea are taken into consideration.