China, which claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, has been involved an increasingly tense stand-off with the Philippines in the waters there, as both seek to assert their sovereignty claims.

The Philippines on Monday rejected China's claim to a group of three sandbars in the South China Sea , after recent displays by both sides of their national flags on the uninhabited outcroppings. The back and forth over Sandy Cay is the latest flare-up in a long-running dispute over territory in the hotly contested South China Sea,