China has said it will not comply with a deadline to attend an international hearing at the United Nations Court of Permanent Arbitration over its South China Sea dispute with its neighbours.

The UN court in the Hague, Netherlands, is looking into Beijing' s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea. China says it has a historical claim over the resource-rich South China sea but its neighbours, the Philippines among them, disagree.

Al Jazeera's Adrian Brown reports from Beijing, China.