BEIJING, July 14 — There has been a firestorm of criticism in China’s state-run media and on its tightly censored internet since an international tribunal ruled against the Asian giant’s vast claims in the South China Sea this week.

Here are 10 of the most colourful and outraged reactions.

1. “Chinese people will firmly support our government to launch a tit-for-tat counterpunch,” if the US and Japan use the ruling “to pile military and political pressure on Beijing,” the state-run Global Times said in an editorial yesterday.

2. The ruling “is ‘a piece of paper’ that is destined to come to naught, since it does nothing except reveal the tribunal’s degeneration into a political instrument,” the state-run China Daily said in an editorial yesterday.

3. The Chinese military “is not afraid of the bluff and blustering by anyone and is capable of dealing with all threats and challenges,” the official newspaper of China’s army, the PLA Daily, said yesterday.

4. “Any attempts to undermine China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests will prove to be delusion,” the mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist party, the People’s Daily, said on its front page yesterday.

5. “No matter if in the past, present or future, any provocation that challenges China’s bottom line will only hurt itself, like lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s own foot,” the People’s Daily added.

6. The People’s Daily published on its microblog a Chinese map showing a line encircling the South China Sea, accompanied by the slogan “China: Can’t lack even a speck”. An edited version of the map that showed Chinese territory covering Mongolia, parts of Russia and Central Asia was also shared online.

7. “Don’t Accept, Don’t Participate, Don’t Recognise, Don’t Implement!,” said a slogan shared on the People’s Daily’s microblog.

8. “Blustering US a paper tiger in S. China Sea,” the Global Times said in an editorial today.

9. A comic on the website of the official Xinhua news agency showed the Philippines represented by a monkey, saying: “We are a small country and you are so big! Why don’t you just give us a tiny little island?”. China, represented by a friendly Panda, replies: “So you mean the motherland can just be given out like presents, and a small country is entitled to bullying a big one?”

10. A Patriotic music video named “South China Sea arbitration, who cares?” went viral on the day of the ruling and featured footage of Chinese warships and fighter jets, as well as two female soldiers brandishing knives. — AFP