Chinese newspapers condemn Hague Tribunal ruling on South China Sea

Criticising UN tribunal's ruling rejecting Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea, Communist party-controlled newspapers have warned of military escalation in response to what they denounced as a U.S. ploy to thwart China's rise.

China in a 13,900-word white paper rebuffed the UN tribunal's verdict and called it "a piece of paper that is destined to come to naught", reports the Guardian.

It claimed the Philippines which brought the case, had "distorted facts, misinterpreted laws and concocted a pack of lies" in order to undermine Chinese interests.

According to a copy of the text published by Xinhua, Beijing's official news agency, the ruling against China had been based on "woefully weak pieces of evidence", the white paper fumed.

Even in a front page commentary in the Communist party's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily dismissed the ruling as "a lackey of some outside forces" that would be remembered "as a laughing stock in human history".

"We do not claim an inch of land that does not belong to us, but we won't give up any patch that is ours," the Guardian quoted People's Daily newspaper as saying.

"China, of course, will not accept such downright political provocations," the newspaper added.

Beijing's English-language mouthpiece, the China Daily also claimed the "outrageously one-sided ruling" meant military confrontation in the region had become more likely.

"With military activity reaching unprecedented levels in the South China Sea, there is no guarantee that an escalating war of words will not transform into something more," it said.

The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid that is reportedly controlled by the People's Daily was even was even more direct in its opinion.

It warned that further political or military pressure from Washington which Beijing has accused of masterminding the case against its claims in the South China Sea would lead the people of China to firmly support its government in launching a tit-for-tat counterpunch.

China's vice-foreign minister, Liu Zhenmin said that Beijing reserved the right to declare an air defence identification zone over the South China Sea.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday ruled that China has no "historic title" over the waters of the South China Sea.

In its ruling, it also said that China has interfered with traditional Philippine fishing rights at Scarborough Shoal, even as Beijing claimed historic rights to the waters under nine-dash line, which the tribunal said is contrary to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that determines which countries can claim economic exploitation rights, based on geographic features.