Chinese FM rejects Philippine, Japanese, US claims on South China Sea issue

"However, neither did the Philippines inform China in advance, nor it sought China's consent. The Philippines just unilaterally and forcefully initiated the arbitration," he said. "The Chinese side cannot understand this act, and could only think that there were ulterior motives behind this."

The Chinese minister contended that Manila should know that China has already issued a statement in 2006 that it does not accept the arbitration under the provisions of section 298 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which is China's legitimate right under the law.

While knowing that it is impossible for China to accept any result of arbitration, the Philippines still insisted on pushing forward the so-called arbitration in violation of the DOC and the agreement with China to settle the issue bilaterally.

"There is only one possible explanation to this, that is it intends to confront China," he said. "The Philippine people should know the truth, and the country's future should not be hijacked by a minority of people."

However, the Chinese minister stressed that the door is still open for dialogue. "I believe as long as the two sides sit down and talk seriously, there will always be a solution to the problem, " he said.