China denied: What Tuesday’s ruling means for Beijing’s maritime ambitions

By Mark MacKinnon | The Globe and Mail | July 12, 2016

An international court in The Hague has dealt a major blow to China’s claim of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, ruling that Beijing had “no historical rights” over the resource-rich and hotly disputed waters.

In a long-awaited ruling published Tuesday, the Permanent Court of Arbitration said there was “no legal basis” for the so-called “nine-dash line” that China claims as its sea border. The nine-dash line, which overlaps with the territorial claims of five Southeast Asian states, claims nearly all of the 3.5-million-square-kilometre South China Sea as sovereign Chinese waters and potentially imperils free passage through one the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Beijing immediately signalled that it would ignore the ruling. “The award is null and void and has no binding force. China neither accepts nor recognizes it,” read a statement carried by the official Xinhua newswire.

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