For more analysis, we are joined in the studio by Professor Zhu Feng, the Executive Director of China Center for Collaborative Studies of South China Sea at Nanjing University, as well as Professor Zhang Xinjun from the School of Law in Tsinghua University.

Q1: China has boycotted the hearings of the arbitration, saying it does not have jurisdiction to decide on the matter. Can you elaborate on its stance?

Q2: Beijing says territorial issues are not subject to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and in 2006 it declared to exclude disputes concerning maritime delimitation from mandatory dispute-settlement procedures. Why did the arbitral tribunal receive the case? Does it have any legal grounds to do so?