About $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year though the energy-rich, strategic waters of the South China Sea.
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Beijing says an arbitration court hearing the dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea has no jurisdiction.
US officials have warned that Beijing could respond to the ruling by expanding its recent island-building or declaring an air-defense zone in the area.
Tensions have intensified and spread ahead of the ruling, with two U.S. aircraft carriers taking part in various exercises in East Asian waters last month in what the U.S. Navy said an effort to deter any attempts to “destabilize the region”.
Protesters, from the Socialista National Confederation of Labor activist group, display a mock missile during a rally regarding the disputed islands in the South China Sea, in front of the Chinese Consulate in Makati city, metro Manila, July 24, 2015.
Reichler expressed confidence that the Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, would rule in Manila’s favor on July 12.
“China believes that over the long run it’s inevitably going to win this South China Sea contest (because) the US will be distracted, the Philippines will cut a deal, so it doesn’t need to pick a fight”.
“The Tribunal will issue its Award on Tuesday, 12 July 2016 at approximately 11 a.m., CEST [0900GMT], The Hague”, it said. Beijing has repeatedly said it will ignore the verdict despite pressure from the USA and its allies to comply.
Manila is indirectly challenging the Asian giant by arguing that Beijing controls and is constructing on rocks and low-tide elevations, not islands, and thus can not set an exclusive economic zone around the formations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The arbitral tribunal established at the request of the Philippines has no jurisdiction over the case, and the upcoming ruling will result from abuse of the law and is therefore invalid, the spokesperson said.
Hong said: “I hereby once again emphasize that the Arbitral Tribunal has no jurisdiction over the case and the relevant subject matter, and that it should not have heard the case”.
Reichler is an global lawyer with a reputation for representing small countries against big powers, including a 1980s case by Nicaragua that accused the United States of funding right-wing Contra rebels against a left-wing government.
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“It is an act of militarization in the South China Sea and it endangers regional peace and stability”, he said. Coordinates given by the maritime security administration cover an area of approximately 106,000 square kilometers and encompass most of the Paracel Islands.
