Taiwan sent a frigate to disputed waters in the South China Sea Wednesday, a day after an international tribunal ruled that formations in the area were reefs, not islands. 
"The mission today aims to show Taiwan's determination to defend its national interests," President Tai Ing-wen told the crew, adding that Tuesday's ruling severely damaged Taiwan's rights. 
The mission was bound for Taiping Island, the largest of the natural formations in the Spratly Islands, around 300 kilometers west of the Philippines, and 1,500 kilometers south-east of Taiwan. 
The area is subject to competing claims by China, Taiwan and the Philippines. 
The Spratlys fall within the exclusive economic zone that reaches 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the Philippine coast, meaning China and Taiwan can only claim them as territory if they are substantial enough to be considered islands. 
But the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Tuesday ruled that all of the Spratlys, in their natural state, were reefs or rocks, not true islands, under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. 
Taiwan maintains that Taiping is an island and is part of its territory, and has built an airstrip on the 1.4-kilometre-long formation.

Source: QNA