Permanent Court of Arbitrationhas rejected China’s claims to economic rights across South China Sea.

The Hague-based (PCA) on 12 July 2016 ruled in favor of the Philippines in a maritime dispute on South China Sea. The tribunal concluded that China do not have legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the Sea.
•    The tribunal gave a ruling that China does not has the right to resources within its nine-dash line  which extends hundreds of miles to the south and east of its island province of Hainan and covers some 90 percent of the disputed waters.
•    The tribunal also found that none of the sea features claimed by China were capable of generating what's called an exclusive economic zone which gives country maritime rights to resources such as fish and oil and gas within 200 nautical miles of that land mass.
•    It found that they were rocks or low-tide elevations such as reefs, rather than islands.
•    The tribunal found that some of China’s activities in the region were in breach of the Philippines' sovereign rights.
The Philippines and China have longtime maritime dispute as China claims of sovereignty over large swaths of the South China Sea, and Manila took its fight to the court in 2013.