People support Beijing's stance

The Chinese people have been expressing their support for their government's stance in the South China Sea issue and voicing anger at the ruling in the arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines.

Since the ruling was issued at 5 pm on Tuesday, the hottest topics on Sina Weibo, a popular social media platform, have been the ruling itself and speculation on a China-United States confrontation.

The topic called "South China Sea arbitration" had received more than 1 billion hits as of 5 pm on Wednesday, and similar topics focusing on the arbitration had received several billion hits. A Sina Weibo user named "Liweiminlushi", or Lawyer Li Weimin, said in a post on Tuesday that China's territorial sovereignty and maritime sovereignty do not fall under the international tribunal's jurisdiction, and "China's territory can not be reduced by even 1 centimeter".