On the eve of the United Nation's arbitration tribunal ruling on the Philippines' case against China, Beijing has accused the Japanese judge who supervised the formation of the court of bias.

In an opinion piece published in the Jakarta Post on Sunday, China's Ambassador to Indonesia Xie Feng said Judge Shunji Yanai went beyond his jurisdiction in forming the tribunal which is far from being impartial and can hardly be considered as 'universally representative.'

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The Permanent Court of Arbitration will issue a written decision at 11 am (0900 GMT) on Tuesday on the territorial case filed by the Philippines against China over ownership of hundreds of reefs and islands in the disputed South China Sea.

Discredit

The Japan Times took up the cudgels for Judge Yanai saying China will do anything to discredit the tribunal's impending ruling on the South China Sea territorial case filed by Manila against Beijing in 2013.

It noted that China's complaint about the integrity of the five-member arbitration panel had been published in foreign newspapers and other media outlets in the past month in a bid to convince the international community of the illegality of the tribunal's impending ruling.

"Perhaps most surprisingly, it (Beijing) has even alluded to a Japanese conspiracy to steer the decision away from favoring China," the Japan Times report said.

Judge Yanai was then the president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), an independent judicial body created under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to hear and adjudicate maritime disputes between countries.

Five-member panel

The five-member tribunal judges would be hosted by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) which is independent of the ITLOS. Under the set-up, Manila and Beijing were given the right to choose their respective judge to join the panel.

Since China has refused to participate in the proceedings, and has thus given up its rights, Judge Yanai took it upon himself to choose a judge on behalf of  Beijing.

China said four of the five-member panel were Europeans who were chosen by the 'biased Japanese judge' who should have inhibited himself from overseeing the tribunal formation given that Beijing has a separate territorial dispute with Tokyo over the East China Sea.

Nationality

But Judge Yanai defended his actions saying that nationality was not an issue in the formation of the tribunal. He said the judges were chosen based on their expertise and competence in handling maritime disputes.

Manila said it had exhausted all avenues-- diplomatic and political-- for nearly 18 years before it decided to lodge a legal case against Beijing in 2013.

Legal experts have said that the ruling will most likely favor Manila.

China, infuriated over Manila's legal actions, has said it does not recognize the tribunal's jurisdiction despite calls from the international community for Beijing to abide by the verdict.

If China's rejects the court's impending ruling, the PCA has no right and power within itself to enforce the decision. 

TagsJudge Shunji Yanai, Hague arbitration court ruling, Permanent Court of Arbitration, Philippines, South China Sea, china