Third parties are only making things worse

Curiously enough, there seems to be a shared belief that the upcoming ruling from a tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, due Tuesday, will be a win for Manila, a loss for Beijing.

But win or lose, the ruling makes no difference to Beijing because it deems the arbitration illegitimate as the court has no jurisdiction.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's government may or may not hype up a favorable ruling from the arbitration tribunal, since binding himself too tightly to his predecessor's bandwagon will effectively throttle any hope of repairing his country's broken ties with China. But no matter if the ruling goes in his country's favor, it will not be executable given Beijing's non-acceptance.