China rejects ruling on South China Sea as ‘null and void’
BEIJING — China swiftly rejected an international tribunal’s ruling Tuesday 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.
Chinese President Xi Jinping repeated Beijing’s stance that the South China Sea has been Chinese territory since “ancient times” and said China’s territorial sovereignty and interests in the region would not be influenced under any circumstances by the ruling, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
“This farce is now over,” said Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in an interview with state broadcaster CCTV. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “China opposes and will never accept any claim or action based on those awards.”