Beijing has taken its fight over the disputed South China Sea to a whole new arena — New York's Times Square — leasing a giant electronic billboard to showcase its claims in a video that falsely suggests a British lawmaker supports its position.

In a bid to explain what state media calls the "historical and legal basis" backing its "indisputable territorial sovereignty and rights" in the region, Beijing has been running the more than three-minute video about 120 times a day since July 23, according to state-run media.

The ad is being displayed just weeks after a July 12 ruling by an international arbitration tribunal in The Hague in The Netherlands rejected Beijing's historic claims to much of the South China Sea. China rejected the decision, which it has vowed to ignore, blasting the case brought by the Philippines as a "farce" and calling the ruling "wastepaper."