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ByChristopherBodeen and Jim Gomez The Associated Press BEIJING Evenbeforearul- ing, China may have lost by refusing to cooperate with a U.N. arbitration tribunal over its South China Sea claims. Yet Beijing seems prepared to absorb the cost to its reputation, confident that in terms of territory and resources, it won't lose a thing. Despite pressure from Washington and elsewhere, China appears determined to avoid granting any hint of legitimacy to a process that might challenge its claim to ownership of virtu- ally the entire South China Sea, including its islands, reefs, fish stocks and po- tentially rich reserves of oil and gas. The collateral cost, ana- lysts say: harm to global ef- forts to resolve similar ter- ritorial disputes through legal means. By its actions, China is demonstrating that countries can reject such measures whenever they conflict with their interests. The case before The Hague tribunal, filed by the Philippines, centers on the applicability of Chi- na's vaguely drawn "nine- dash line" South China Sea boundary under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS. A decision is expected some- time within the next several weeks, but since there is no enforcement mechanism, its potential impact is un- clear. Along with China and the Philippines, four other gov- ernments — Brunei, Malay- sia, Taiwan and Vietnam — also claim islands and reefs falling within the nine-dash line, while Indonesia has ex- pressed concern about the Chinese boundary overlap- ping with its exclusive eco- nomic zone. For months, Chinese of- ficials, state media outlets and high-ranking military officers have maintained a relentless stream of invec- tive against the Philippines' pursuit of arbitration, call- ing it unlawful, illegitimate and a "political farce." "The South China Sea arbitration unilaterally ini- tiated by the Philippines is nothing but a political scheme for one party to in- sult the other and will be recorded as an infamous case in the history of inter- national law," Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told a group of visiting report- ers in Beijing earlier this month. That the panel is headed by a former diplomat from China's old nemesis, Japan, makes it even more worthy of derision, Chinese critics say. "The ruling can't be ob- jective and fair, and we won't be giving up our his- torical rights simply to make China look good," said Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies. Seeking to win over global opinion, both China and chief Philippine ally the United States have been lin- ing up friendly nations to back their positions. Yet, with the exception of Rus- sia, which has been expelled from the G7 and is under heavy international sanc- tions, those whose support Beijing's claims are mostly small states from outside the region with little influ- ence over the dispute. Even government-backed scholars such as Wu say that the case is a no-win situation for China. "Whatever the result, this is a definite loss for China since we've been forced to assume a passive role," Wu said. Regardless of China's ar- guments denying the pan- el's legality, it "will damage China's reputation and im- age," said Yun Sun, an ex- pert on Chinese foreign pol- icy at the U.S. Stimson Cen- ter think tank. However, Sun said that's considered a relatively small price to pay to retain control over the "tangible real terri- tory," far more important than any question of "face." "Given the stakes in oil, natural resources and stra- tegic depth, I suspect the Chinese government is willing to pay that price," agreed Michael Desch, co- director of the Interna- tional Security Program at the University of Notre Dame in the U.S. CLAIMS SouthChinaSea:Chinawillingtopaythepriceofdefiance THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Chinese navy vessels take part in a drill in the waters off Zhoushan in east China's Zhejiang province. By Amir Vahdat and Jon Gambrell The Associated Press TEHRAN,IRAN An Iranian- British woman detained in Iran faces charges of trying to cause the "soft toppling" of the government, a state- run news agency reported Wednesday, the latest in a series of cases in which dual nationals have been detained since last year's nuclear deal with world powers. Her husband dis- missed the charges as "ex- traordinary and untrue." IRNA's report marks the first official acknowl- edgment of the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Rat- cliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Founda- tion, the charitable arm of the news agency. Iran's Revolutionary Guard detained Zaghari- Ratcliffe on April 3 at Teh- ran's Imam Khomeini In- ternational Airport and later transferred her to a prison in Kerman prov- ince, according to the IRNA report. It said she had phone calls and met regularly with her family. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained while trying to fly out of the country with her toddler daughter, Gabri- ella, who remains in Iran with family after authori- ties seized her passport, ac- cording to Amnesty Inter- national. The Guard said Zaghari- Ratcliffe, 37, had partici- pated in the "design and implementation of cy- ber and media projects to cause the soft toppling of the Islamic Republic." It did not elaborate. Iran's mission to the United Na- tions did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said his wife took her daughter to visit fam- ily for Nowruz, the Ira- nian New Year. Ratcliffe described his wife as "not political ... but someone with a sincere moral core and great integrity. It is to Iran's shame that peo- ple like her are subjected to this treatment." "If these are indeed the allegations, this is of course farcical — the idea that there is some malevo- lent network headed by Na- zanin and her 2-year-old daughter is nonsense," Rat- cliffe said in a statement. The Thomson Reuters Foundation said it had "no dealings with Iran whatso- ever, does not operate and does not plan to operate in the country." The founda- tion focuses on providing journalism training and working on human rights issues like ending slavery and providing legal assis- tance to those who need it. 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