China vowed to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty in the South China Sea and said it had the right to set up an air defense zone, after rejecting an international tribunal's ruling that denied its claims in the region.
State media called the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague a "puppet" of external forces, after it ruled that China had breached the Philippines' sovereign rights by endangering its ships and fishing and oil projects.
China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, where its territorial claims overlap in parts with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
