Tokyo¡¯s ties with Beijing have taken another turn for the worse, this time over Japan¡¯s with 13 other nations marking the 10th anniversary of an international tribunal¡¯s dismissal of Beijing¡¯s vast claims to the disputed South China Sea.

China on Sunday reiterated its firm opposition to the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, calling it ¡°a worthless piece of paper¡± that has ¡°provided a pretext for external forces to intervene and destabilize the South China Sea.¡±

Beijing maintains a claim to some 90% of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade flow every year, overlapping with the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.