Beijing will not take a “single step back” in the contested South China Sea, state-run media said Friday, despite reports of US naval patrols close to its artificial islands ahead of a tribunal ruling on the dispute.

China asserts sovereignty over almost all of the strategically vital waters in the face of rival claims from its Southeast Asian neighbours, and has rapidly turned reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

It is currently holding a week of military drills around the Paracel Islands in the northern part of the sea, during which other ships have been prohibited from entering the waters.

The Virginia-based Navy Times reported this week that three US destroyers – the Spruance, Stethem and Momsen – have been patrolling near the Chinese-claimed Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Islands further south.

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and supporting vessels are also in the South China Sea, the US Navy has said.

The Navy Times cited experts describing the deployments as “a message of resolve to the Chinese and US allies in the region” and “a deliberate show of force” ahead of an international tribunal ruling.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague is set to release its final decision Tuesday on the case, which was brought by the Philippines challenging China’s position.

In an editorial Friday the Global Times newspaper, which is close to the ruling Communist Party and often takes a nationalistic tone, said: “If the US and the Philippines act on impulse and carry out flagrant provocation, China will not take a single step back.” It could turn Scarborough Shoal – an islet it wrested from Philippine control in 2012 – “into a military outpost”, it said, and “tow away or sink” an old landing craft Manila grounded on the Chinese-claimed Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratlys to “resolve the standoff once and for all”.

It blamed Vietnam and the Philippines for provoking tensions by carrying out reclamation work in the area earlier.

But also Friday, Philippines Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said his country was willing to share natural resources with Beijing in the contested areas even if it wins the legal challenge next week.

Yasay said President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration hoped to quickly begin direct talks with China following Tuesday’s verdict, with the negotiations to cover jointly exploiting natural gas reserves and fishing grounds within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

Beijing cites a vaguely defined “nine-dash line” on Chinese maps dating back to the 1940s as the source of its territorial claims, but Manila contests that the line has no basis under international law, and that Beijing has no historic right to the area.

Manila lodged the PCA suit against Beijing in early 2013, saying that after 17 years of negotiations it had exhausted all political and diplomatic avenues to settle the dispute.

Beijing has boycotted the proceedings, saying the court has no jurisdiction over the issue.

At a regular press briefing Friday, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the arbitration went against the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and was thus “a violation of international rule of order under the cloak of championing it”.

Attempts to pressure China into accepting its outcome were “delusional” and “futile”, he added.

His comments echoed a China Daily editorial Friday, which called the court case a “farce” and the tribunal’s forthcoming ruling “illegal, null and void from the outset”.

The ruling was likely to result in “increasing threats” to China, which “has to be prepared for all eventualities”, it said, adding: “This is not being alarmist, it is being realistic.”

The Philippines is willing to share natural resources with Beijing in contested South China Sea areas even if it wins a legal challenge next week, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay told AFP Friday.

Yasay said President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration hoped to quickly begin direct talks with China following Tuesday’s verdict, with the negotiations to cover jointly exploiting natural gas reserves and fishing grounds within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

“We can even have the objective of seeing how we can jointly explore this territory: how we can utilise and benefit mutually from the utilisation of the resources in this exclusive economic zone where claims are overlapping,” Yasay told AFP in an interview.

The Philippines, under Benigno Aquino’s previous administration, filed in 2013 a legal challenge with a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague contesting China’s claims to nearly all of the strategically vital sea.

China’s claims reach almost to the coasts of the Philippines and some other Southeast Asian nations, and it has in recent years built giant artificial islands in the disputed areas to enforce what it says are its indisputable sovereign rights.

The Philippines’ case enraged China, which repeatedly vowed to ignore the tribunal’s ruling and is currently holding military drills in the northern part of the sea as a show of force.

Duterte, who took office on June 30, has adopted a more conciliatory approach to China than Aquino.

The previous president refused to hold direct talks, and likened China’s expansionist efforts in the sea to Nazi Germany’s march on parts of Europe ahead of World War II.

Yasay signalled on Friday that Duterte would be making no such analogies, emphasising his administration would seek to ensure the best possible relations with China.

“I would like to be forward-looking on these matters,” he said when asked to comment on Aquino’s Nazi statement.

“I would like to make sure whatever actions this administration will take, the statements we will be making will be in the pursuit of strengthening our relationship with everybody and will be for the purpose of making sure there will be no stumbling block to our negotiating a peaceful solution to the issue.” He also said China and the Philippines had agreed not to make any “provocative statements” following the release of the ruling.

Yasay said after the ruling is released, the Philippines would study it closely, discuss it with allies, and then seek to launch talks with China “as soon as possible”.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country’s exclusive economic zone falls within 200 nautical miles of its coast. A nation has sovereign rights to exploit natural resources in that zone.

Yasay said the Philippines was open to sharing Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone that China took control of in 2012 and has banned Filipino boats from entering.

“It’s my understanding that in the long course of history, Scarborough Shoal has been the traditional fishing grounds not only for Filipinos but also for Vietnamese, Chinese. We can continue with this arrangement,” he said.

“The resources there are God-given for all and for everyone to enjoy. We can work at joint benefit in so far as using the marine resources in the area.” Yasay said the Philippines would also consider jointly exploring a natural gas field at Reed Bank, which is similarly within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and far from China’s nearest major landmass.

“I think it would be in the pursuit of our national interest to do that and that will be a big step forward if everyone can agree on proceeding on that basis,” Yasay said when asked about jointly developing Reed Bank.

Yasay insisted the Philippines would not concede any of its rights in the sea.

But he said the issue of sovereignty would not be solved for many years, describing it as a “generational issue”, and that rival claimants must in the meantime work cooperatively.

Duterte and Yasay met with China’s ambassador to the Philippines, Zhao Jianhua, on Thursday. Zhao was seen again at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday.

Han-han, a former stray, has helped the lives of many other dogs by regularly donating at Taiwan’s first veterinary blood bank.

The five-year-old mixed breed was rewarded with steak by her owner after her latest donation at the Pingtung University of Technology and Science’s teaching animal hospital, which opened its doors to those with four paws on June 13.

“Just like when people donate blood, you don’t know who you are saving, but you are willing to do it,” Han-han’s owner, Lin Hui-ching, said. “She probably also understands that she has saved a lot of dogs.”

Donor dogs in Taiwan are allowed to give 250 ml of blood every three months, have to undergo health checks before each donation, must be at least five-years-old and weigh more than 20 kg.

Tsai Yi-lun, who is an assistant professor at the department of veterinary medicine and runs the programme, hopes to extend the blood bank service to the whole of Taiwan, after being inspired by a similar centre in Thailand.

A mobile blood donation station is also in the works and Tsai wants to also grow the service to cater for cats, other pets and livestock.