Beijing vows to ignore whatever The Hague decides in Tuesday's South China Sea ruling
Guang Niu/GettyChinese navy soldiers guard on Navy Battleship of Wenzhou at Qingdao Port on April 22, 2009 in Qingdao of Shandong Province, China.WASHINGTON - China claims it will ignore The Hague's ruling on Tuesday in which the Philippines challenges Beijing's right to exploit resources across the South China Sea.
Territorial claims from Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Taiwan, and China make the South China Sea one of the most disputed places on the planet.
What's more, this contested region is home to $5 trillion in annual global trade, so the tit for tat over crumbs of land in these waters isn't for nothing.
China, who claims the lion's share of the region, has boycotted prior hearings and Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters, "We won't accept any of their so-called materials, no matter what they are."
The case, brought by the Philippines in 2013, hinges on the legal status of reefs, rocks and artificial islands in the Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Island group.
Manila's 15-point case critically asks the tribunal to rule on the status of China's so-called "nine-dash line,"a boundary that is the basis for its 69-year-old claim to roughly 85 percent of the South China Sea.
According to the 1982 UNCLOS, islands grant their owners a 12 nautical mile radius of sovereign territorial waters.
Manila argued in closed court hearings that none of the islands, shoals and reefs in the Spratlys are large enough to grant an additional 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone for fishing and extracting seabed resources.
And while the court has no power of enforcement, but a victory for the Philippines could spur Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei to file similar cases.
Reuters contributed to this report.