Beijing rejects ruling on South China Sea

China swiftly rejected an international tribunal’s ruling that its expansive claim to the South China Sea had no legal basis, saying the ruling was null and void and that Beijing would not accept it.

The ruling by the five-member panel at The Hague handed a massive victory to the Philippines, which had filed the case in 2013 challenging the so-called nine-dash line that China uses to claim virtually the entire South China Sea.

Manila opposed it because it infringes upon its own 200-mile exclusive economic zone.