A defiant China on Monday dismissed the 2016 verdict of the international tribunal on the South China Sea, rejecting its claims over the area as a piece of “waste paper” and brushed aside US’ fresh backing for the judgement as a “political farce” to smear Beijing.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian’s remarks came as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) claimed to have “expelled” US Navy destroyer USS Benfold which sailed through the South China Sea (SCS), coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the verdict to assert freedom of navigation.

Without authorisation from the Chinese government, the US guided-missile destroyer illegally trespassed into China’s territorial waters and the PLA Southern Theatre Command organised maritime and aerial forces to track and monitor it and warned it away, Senior Colonel Tian Junli, spokesperson of the command, said in a statement.

The US has been periodically conducting such naval and aerial missions through the SCS to challenge China’s claims.

On the fifth anniversary of the international tribunal on the SCS, which had delivered a stunning blow to China’s expansive sovereignty claims over the all-important sea trade route, the Biden administration upheld the previous Trump-era backing to the tribunal verdict.

The post China rejects South China Sea Tribunal Verdict as “waste paper”; terms US backing as “political farce” appeared first on Defence News India.