On the 10th anniversary of the South China Sea arbitration, Chinese state media used an AI-generated video to depict the Philippines as a monkey, drawing condemnation as racist from Philippine Defense Minister Teodoro.
This approximately one-minute-long video was uploaded on July 10 to the social media X account of the English edition of “China Daily.” In the video, a monkey dressed in traditional Filipino attire is shown singing karaoke under the direction of arms representing the U.S. and Japan.
At the beginning of the video, the monkey sings: “We support bypassing China to advance so-called maritime delimitation talks”—a reference to the Philippines and Japan launching exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf boundary negotiations at the end of May this year. Immediately after, a voiceover sternly rebukes: “Wrong song! Stupid monkey, that’s not the lyrics we gave you!”
Next, the monkey pulls out a piece of paper from its pocket, marked with the words “South China Sea Arbitration Award” in English. This is swiftly thrown into the sea by the Japan- and U.S.-representing arms and is subsequently blasted by water cannons from ships.
“China Daily” wrote in the accompanying text: “The louder some Philippine politicians sing, the further they stray from the truth... The ‘Philippine Politicians Karaoke Show’ exposes this farce for what it is: their clinging to external forces and stirring up trouble in the South China Sea is turning their own country into a pawn in other people’s geostrategic game.”
Philippine Defense Minister Teodoro stated later on the 16th: “Such mockery of the 2016 legitimate arbitral ruling, and the glorification of violent acts against Philippine people and soldiers in the video, reveal the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China’s propaganda machinery.”
Teodoro’s statement continued: “The Chinese Communist Party’s recent spate of schizophrenic behavior is too evident to ignore or take lightly. This latest act of dehumanization further shows that they are neither a secure and confident actor nor a trustworthy neighbor.”
Teodoro said this move exposes “the weakness of a government that is utterly unable to defend its absurd claims through reason, evidence, or law, and is left to resort only to racism, threats, and the manufacture of hatred.”
Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Tarriela said: “This is outright racial discrimination—I cannot think of any other reason to explain this kind of racially discriminatory depiction of Filipinos.”