Beijing's claims to South China Sea rejected by international tribunal

China immediately rejected the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, but it was hailed as a landmark victory for those challenging Beijing's reach into waters with key strategic and commercial significance.

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"It is a clean sweep for the Philippines, with the tribunal rejecting China's nine-dashed line and historical rights claim as well as censuring its aggressive activities in the area and, among others, the ecological damage caused by its reclamation activity."

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In Washington, Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Philippines won "a major victory," with judges ruling in its favor on almost every point. "China's reaction is likely to be extremely tough. Fasten your seat belts," she said.

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In rejecting the decision, Beijing is certainly not alone. No permanent member of the U.N. Security Council has ever complied with a ruling by the PCA on the Law of the Sea, wrote Graham Allison, director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "In fact, none of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have ever accepted any international court's ruling when (in their view) it infringed on their sovereignty or national security interests," Allison wrote in The Diplomat. The United States has never ratified UNCLOS, and rejected a 1986 verdict at the International Court of Justice ordering it to pay reparations to Nicaragua for mining its harbors, he noted.