Sound bites

The US Navy, the strongest in the world, will go wherever it wishes. There are hostile forces in the United States, and they worked together with the Philippines to make the arbitration case. The United States is not part of the UNCLOS, but China has been a part of it. The Philippine leadership made a mistake and misjudgment.

Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore

Although the Philippines has not asked the tribunal to determine the sovereignty of the maritime territories involved, essentially the question before the tribunal concerns territorial sovereignty, and the tribunal is not entitled to decide such questions. China, in its declaration on becoming a party to UNCLOS, excluded third-party compulsory arbitration with regard to those issues which the tribunal is being asked to rule on by the Philippines. A declaration by a state party to a treaty remains in effect until it is withdrawn by the state which made it.