Tokyo not entitled to comment on South China Sea: Beijing

Beijing has said Japan is "not even entitled to make judgmental comments on China" after Japan's top diplomat said he will touch on the South China Sea issue at a proposed meeting with his Chinese counterpart.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier this week that if he meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Lao capital Vientiane, he would talk about the South China Sea issue.

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Lang told reporters on Sunday that China urges Japan not to hype or interfere in the South China Sea issue.

"Japan is not directly connected with the South China Sea issue, not to mention its inglorious past," Lu said, referring to the Japanese Imperial Army's illegally seizing Chinese islands in the Sea during the World War II.

Tokyo has publicly pressed Beijing to accept the ruling earlier this month by an arbitral tribunal that challenges China’s sovereignty in the South China Sea.

Lu Kang said China's not accepting the ruling is "safeguarding its own rights and interests based on international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea".