Full coverage: The South China Sea Issue

China has refuted the Philippines' statement that reefs in Nansha Islands cannot claim exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea arbitration.

Spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said China's Nansha Islands, composed of reefs and coastal beaches, is taken as a whole and all its parts are closely linked. 

"Under the relevant provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as well as the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, and the Law on the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf of the People's Republic of China, China's Nansha Islands is fully entitled to Territorial Sea, Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf. Any attempts to deny the overall integrity and related maritime rights, as well as the interests of the Nansha Islands, and to separate parts of the island from the whole, violates the generally-accepted international law," Spokesperson Hong Lei said.