China and the Philippines have each unfurled their national flags on tiny sandbars in the South China Sea, staking competing sovereignty claims in strategic waters seen as a potential flashpoint for global conflict.

The Philippines said on Monday there was no truth to news reports that Beijing has seized control of a disputed reef in the South China Sea, after its personnel landed on the unoccupied sandbars and found no Chinese presence there.

BEIJING (AP) — China says six Filipinos landed on a tiny outcropping that both countries claim in the South China Sea, days after photos emerged of Chinese coast guard officers displaying a Chinese flag on the same group of sandbars.