On April 20th, the National Institute for South China Sea Studies and China Oceanic Development Foundation held the press conference of the first summer camp for national college students on "Close to the South China Sea: Focus on and Explore the Ocean" in Boao, Hainan. Wu Shicun, President of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, and Pan Xinchun, Deputy President and Secretary-General of China Oceanic Development Foundation, introduced the summer camp to the guests and media reporters.

Wu Shicun said that the strategy of "Marine Potestatem" was formally put forward on the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Civil forces and social organizations have being cultivating and enhancing college students' ocean consciousness and actions through diversified marine activities, which will be conducive to unite the ideological consensus of contemporary youth today, lay a talent foundation for the construction of a Marine Potestatem, and at the same time create a social atmosphere of "caring for the ocean and loving the marine cause".

It is understood that the first summer camp for national college students on "Close to the South China Sea: Focus on and Explore the Ocean" will bear two features. First, focus on the South China Sea to popularize marine knowledge and cultivate talents. From mid-June to mid-July, the organizers will use the national online examination platform (ATA) to hold the preliminary and semi-finals of the "Close to the South China Sea" National College Students' Marine Knowledge Competition. The selected winners will attend a series of lectures on marine topics as campers in Haikou, Qionghai, Sanya and other place, visit fishing ports and fishing villages, functional departments, and research institutions related to the ocean as well as an island in the South China Sea to experience the island life. Before and after the closing of the summer camp, the campers will also participate in a competition of short videos on the theme of the ocean and an essay contest on the theme of "The South China Sea and Me". The winners, in addition to the bonus, will be selected into the "Marine Talents Training Program of National Institute for South China Sea Studies". Second, taking advantage of the unique position of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies as a long-standing research base for the South China Sea issues and education base for improving national ocean consciousness, combine activities such as education about the history of South China Sea rights protection, display of archival literature, academic salon observation and dialogue with veterans devoting to rights protection, old fishermen, marine environmentalists and young scholars, to enhance the effect of summer camp activities, and young students' sense of gain through experience and participatory teaching, research and learning.

At the press conference, Wu Shicun and Pan Xinchun also answered questions from the media and some of the participants on social support for Hainan's development of high-quality marine economy, marine talents cultivation, and cooperation in key projects such as "Ocean Cooperation and Governance Forum" and "Oral Narrative of South China Sea" and "Training Course on Marine Governance and Marine Law".