MANILA — China Daily’s AI-generated video of a monkey dressed in Filipino national costume has drawn strong rebuke from the Philippines, raising tensions days before Beijing’s top diplomat is set to join a regional meeting in Manila.
The Philippines condemned the “dehumanizing and racist” portrayal of the country as a timid monkey strong-armed by the US and Japan to take Beijing on over the South China Sea.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said the content from Chinese state media was “deeply offensive, distressing, and unacceptable.”
The AI-generated video China Daily posted last week depicted the monkey as acting on orders from US and Japan.
The monkey screams as arms bearing the Japanese and US flags shove it onto a rickety karaoke stage set up in a boat. After it gets scolded for singing the wrong song, it pulls out a sheet reading “South China Sea arbitration award”. It is then flung into the sea and blasted by a water cannon.
China Daily also called the 2016 international arbitral ruling that rejected Beijing’s expansive claims over the South China Sea as “litter.”
Tense stand-offs and occasional violent confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed waters have grown in recent years.
At the center of tensions between Manila and Beijing are the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal (known as Huangyan Island in China), a little more than 100 miles (160km) from the Philippines and 500 miles from China.
The Chinese Coast Guard routinely uses high-pressure water cannons against Philippine vessels in the disputed shoals, which have led to damage and injuries.
“Disagreement over legal and political issues does not justify resorting to disturbing imagery, which has no place in the civil public discourse of a responsible state,” Manila’s foreign ministry said, demanding that the clip be removed.
“Such imagery and misinformation only serve to widen the distrust between the Philippines and China,” it added.
The Philippine defense ministry called the video “contemptible propaganda”, saying it “exposes the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China’s propaganda machine”.
“The recent spate of schizophrenic behavior of the Chinese Communist Party is too clear to disregard or ignore,” defence secretary Gilbert Teodoro said.
The video, posted on 10 July, remains on China Daily’s Facebook page.
The past week marks a decade since the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines, concluding that China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea had no legal basis under international law.
Beijing has ignored the ruling, saying the tribunal lacks jurisdiction.
Tensions between Beijing and Manila have sharply escalated in recent years due to their overlapping claims, with each side accusing the other of provocations and altercations at sea, including some involving weapons such as swords, spears and knives.
In June, Beijing installed a floating barrier at the entrance to the Scarborough Shoal that was removed after the Philippines filed formal diplomatic protests.
Also in June, China barred Teodoro, Manila’s defence secretary, and his immediate family from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
China Daily’s caption to its post of the monkey clip reiterates Bejing’s position.
“Ten years on, the so-called South China Sea arbitration award remains no remedy for peace, but a source of confrontation dressed up as law,” China Daily said.
“By clinging to external forces and stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, [the Philippines’ is] turning their country into a pawn in someone else’s geopolitical game,” the caption added.
The monkey clip is one of a series of clips and cartoons China Daily has posted on Facebook in the past weeks, mocking the Philippines’ actions in the South China Sea. They include depictions of Manila as a clown and a snake, among other things.
Source: Saudi Gazette