THE Philippines rejected China’s claim to a group of three sandbars in the South China Sea today, after both sides displayed their national flags on the uninhabited outcroppings in recent days.

The row over Sandy Cay is the latest flare-up in a long-running dispute over territory in the hotly contested sea, which China claims almost in its entirety.

It began last Thursday when a Chinese state-owned newspaper posted exclusive photographs from mid-April of coastguard officers on Sandy Cay, including one holding up a Chinese flag.