President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan personally sent off a naval warship Wednesday morning to patrol Taiping Island, a Taiwanese territory in the South China Sea that Taipei fears they could lose as a result of Tuesday’s verdict rejecting China’s claims to most of the South China Sea. “The South China arbitration ruling, especially in the part about Taiping Island, has seriously hurt our rights to the South China Sea islands and their relevant waters,” Tsai said in a statement aboard the ship, wishing them well on their mission to “defend Taiwan’s territory.” She added, “Your patrol mission to the South China Sea, which is being conducted ahead of schedule, is highly significant in view of the new development.” The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague announced its verdict Tuesday in the case Philippines vs. China, in which Manila challenged Beijing’s “nine-dash line” map claiming most of the South China Sea, including the sovereign territory of Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. China argued that artificial islands built near the Spratly and Paracel Island chain and the Scarborough Shoal were sovereign Chinese territory, a claim rejected by the court. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea