China has proven to her neighbors that it is a country of peaceful rise and peaceful development, and China has done a lot to the region in terms of peace and development, Chheang Vannarith, a scholar and an ASEAN expert of Cambodia told Xinhua in an interview.

"By signing the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and becoming one of the most important dialogue partners of ASEAN, China has been actively contributing to regional stability and development," Vannarith said. "China has proven to her neighbors that China is a peaceful rise and peaceful development."

Vannarith, who is also the executive director of Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, highly valued the contributions China has made to the region and the world, saying that "Cambodia and China are natural ally. Cambodia regards China as the main stabilizing force and economic locomotive in the region."

"China has done a lot to the region in terms of peace and development. China has supported other countries in the region in many fields from poverty reduction to humanitarian relief," he added.

However, he pointed out that "the international media does not talk much on this rather than focus more on Chinese threat, which seriously damage the public image of China."

At the same time, Vannarith stressed that "Chinese development, like other countries, relies on regional peace and stability. China can not develop alone, it needs to integrate with regional economy. That's why China is very active in east Asian regional integration especially in the economic field. China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement is the milestone of the regional economic integration."

In terms of the current emerging issue in South China Sea and East China Sea, he supported the position expressed clearly by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen recently that "the South China Sea issue should not be internationalized and should be dealt with based on bilateral mechanism."

"Looking back to the sovereignty conflicts in this region, bilateral approaches have proven more effectively than multilateral approaches," he said, adding that "so regarding South China Sea issue, we should stick to China-ASEAN framework and China-Individual Claimant States Framework."

He also noted that "China for many times has shown her willingness to deal with the issue peacefully. China hopes to see more cooperation in the South China Sea with other claimant states through joint development projects by shelving sovereignty issue. " Chheang Vannarith thought that "ASEAN needs to engage in this issue but to a certain extent for instance by encouraging and facilitating conflicting parties to come to terms with the Code of Conduct. Then when it comes to real solution of the issue, bilateral approaches work better, for instance regarding the joint development projects."