China has flatly rejected an approach from an international court in The Hague seeking Beijing's side of the story in an arbitration case over territorial sea claims brought against it by the Philippines last year.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration, which hears international dispute cases, instructed Beijing that it had until Dec. 15 to file its response to the Philippines' own 4,000-page submission, handed to the court in March, which argues that the Chinese claim to most of the South China Sea has no legal basis.

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