Full coverage: South China Sea Is Indisputable Part of China

Chinese ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming has also elaborated China's stance and policies on the South China Sea issue, in a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He said the Philippines broke the promises it had made in the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea when it unilaterally initiated an arbitration case in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Liu called Manila's move as illegal as it has violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. He has reaffirmed that Beijing has no obligations to follow any result of the arbitration.

"This tribunal from the very start, the reference of the arbitration tribunal is illegal. So how could you expect illegal tribunal could result in a good case. So we have no obligation at all from the very beginning. We think the tribunal itself is violation of UNCLOS and international law. I would say in a very clear content, no matter what decision this arbitration is going to make, it'll make no difference on China's sovereignty over these islands and no binding at all on China because it's illegal, unfair and unreasonable," Liu said.