Philippines condemns China Daily monkey video as racist
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Philippines' foreign ministry condemned the 10 July China Daily clip as 'dehumanising and racist,' demanded its removal, and warned the imagery 'widens the distrust between the Philippines and China'
- Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro called the video 'contemptible propaganda' exposing the 'moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China's propaganda machine' and cited 'schizophrenic behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party'
- The AI-generated video shows a monkey in a Filipino shirt being shoved onto a boat karaoke stage by arms bearing US and Japanese flags, then thrown into the sea and blasted by a water cannon after pulling out a sheet reading 'South China Sea arbitration award'
- China Daily had not removed the video from its Facebook page and had not responded to Manila's rebuke at time of writing; the monkey clip is part of a series portraying the Philippines as a clown and a snake
- Beijing and Manila have seen escalating confrontations recently, including China's June installation of a floating barrier at Scarborough Shoal and its travel ban on Teodoro from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau
- The clash comes a decade after the 2014 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling in favor of the Philippines, which Beijing dismissed by saying the tribunal lacks jurisdiction
Why it matters: The diplomatic row signals Manila's growing willingness to publicly name and shame Beijing after months of water-cannon incidents and physical standoffs in the South China Sea. With China refusing to remove the video or respond, the rhetorical escalation adds friction at exactly the moment both sides are already trading travel bans and floating barriers.
