Now read about the five foreign lawyers. – Today, the Chinese news agency Xinhua posted a piece about the “law-abusing tribunal” that is about to release its decision on the South China Sea arbitration in a matter of hours.

Strangely, though, Chinese officials and the state media have not resorted to name-calling the five foreign lawyers whom the Philippines hired as legal counsel for the arbitration suit.

At the end of this piece, which examines the lawyers’ credentials, Dr. Alfredo C. Robles gives a plausible explanation for Beijing’s profound silence.