Beijing tried to officially distance itself from a video by a state-run media outlet that was condemned by the Philippine government for its racist depiction of Filipinos, saying that it was “not an act of the government.”
Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. on Saturday rejected the excuse, saying it was “hard to believe” that the Chinese government had nothing to do with the “state-sponsored video.”
The artificial intelligence (AI)-generated video on the Facebook page of China Daily portrayed Filipinos as monkeys under US and Japanese control. It was posted on July 10 to mock the 10th anniversary of the July 12, 2016 arbitral ruling that upheld Philippine maritime rights against China.
“China Daily is state-sponsored, and nothing comes out of China without their government’s permission. At the defense department, we won’t just take it at face value,” Teodoro told reporters on Saturday on the sidelines of the Ilokano Dialogue on the West Philippine Sea in Batac, Ilocos Norte.
Teodoro was responding to remarks made on Friday by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, who was asked during a press briefing in Beijing about the Philippines’ condemnation of the video and its demand that it be taken down.
‘Not act of government’
“About the video you mentioned, this is not an act of the government. I have no comment on that,” Lin said.
He repeated Beijing’s longstanding refusal to recognize the 2016 arbitral ruling.
“Let me stress that China’s position on the issue of ‘South China Sea arbitration’ is clear and consistent,” Lin said. “The ‘arbitration’ is a political farce masqueraded as a legal process. The so-called ‘award’ is illegal, null and void, and has no binding force.”
Beijing refused to participate in the arbitration initiated by Manila in 2013 to challenge China’s sweeping claims to nearly the entire South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea—waters within the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Friday lodged a diplomatic protest against the video and related editorial cartoons published by China Daily, saying these were “racist, dehumanizing and demeaning” depictions of Filipinos. It demanded that they be taken down.
Party mouthpiece
China Daily, which describes itself as the “voice of China” or “window to China,” is one of the major media groups that are state-owned and directly controlled by the Chinese authorities, according to the Paris-based nonprofit Reporters Without Borders.
The group said that the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party sends a daily detailed notice to all media that includes editorial guidelines and censored topics.
In the 58-second video, a timid monkey wearing the traditional Filipino barong is shoved onto a karaoke stage on a boat.
When it begins singing, a voice shouts “wrong song” and calls it “stupid monkey.” The monkey pulls out a lyrics sheet labeled “South China Sea Arbitration Award.” But before it could sing the new song, arms bearing US and Japanese flags put it in a catapult that sent it flying toward a China Coast Guard ship’s water cannon, which blasted it.
The video has drawn condemnation from Philippine officials and lawmakers. The Department of National Defense, the National Security Council, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the National Maritime Council (NMC) all described it as racist and offensive.
Teodoro was among the first Filipino officials to publicly condemn the China Daily Facebook post.
He described the video as “a revealing insight into what the Chinese communist apparatus thinks of the Filipino people.”
“This mockery of the lawful 2016 Arbitral Award and the video’s glorification of violence against the Filipino people and soldiers expose the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China’s propaganda machine,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
Tarriela vs Padilla
The NMC said on Friday that the video won’t change the Philippines’ legal rights in the West Philippine Sea.
It said the country’s maritime rights and entitlements are anchored in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the “final and binding” 2016 arbitral award.
The controversy also spilled into a public exchange between PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Rear Adm. Jay Tarriela and Sen. Robinhood Padilla.
Padilla also condemned the Chinese video but blamed Tarriela for escalating the “wartime propaganda.” He said Tarriela “drew first blood” by using a caricature of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a lecture earlier this year.
Tarriela rejected Padilla’s accusations, saying that he was just implementing the government’s “transparency initiative,” which documented and exposed China’s aggressive actions and its harassment of Filipino fishermen, the PCG and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
He also criticized Padilla for saying that Filipinos, Chinese and Japanese were all “monkeys of different colors” in the eyes of “white” colonizers.
“I will never accept that my race is likened to monkeys—nor will I accept that future generations of our country be labeled as such,” Tarriela said. “Filipinos are not monkeys.”
A senior member of President Marcos’ administration, Cabinet Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr., strongly condemned the China Daily video.
“There is no place for racism or the dehumanization of any nation or people, especially in responsible public discourse,” Abalos said in a statement on Saturday. “As a Filipino, I take deep offense at any attempt to belittle our people through offensive and degrading imagery.”
Also on Saturday, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said that China’s racist portrayal of the Filipinos speaks more to its own personality.
“If China considers Filipinos as monkeys, then what does that say about its character?” he said.
Lacson has previously noted that the Chinese coast guard’s aggressive actions against Filipino fishing and government vessels only reinforced international support for the Philippines.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Saturday said that she supported the actions taken by the DFA. She expressed “deep indignation” over China’s “dangerous propaganda” and called for a public apology from Beijing.
“We completely and unequivocally reject China’s racist propaganda,” Hontiveros said. “We Filipinos should never be caricatured and stripped of our humanity because of our nationality.”
She said the video was “appalling and beneath the dignity of any State,” and had weakened China’s credibility and cast doubts over its claim of promoting friendship and mutual respect with the Philippines. —WITH REPORTS FROM KEITH CLORES, PNA AND INQUIRER RESEARCH INQ
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