The Philippine Navy frigate BRP Miguel Malvar, built by a South Korean shipyard, is shown to reporters at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, on July 8 (local time), during the ongoing RIMPAC 2026 exercises. [Provided by Defense Media Agency]
The Philippine Navy frigate BRP Miguel Malvar, built by a South Korean shipyard, is shown to reporters at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, on July 8 (local time), during the ongoing RIMPAC 2026 exercises. [Provided by Defense Media Agency]

A Chinese state media outlet sparked a diplomatic row with the Philippines after posting an AI-generated video depicting Filipinos as monkeys on social media, drawing a sharp rebuke from Manila.

China Daily, a Chinese state-run English-language newspaper, recently posted the AI video on its Facebook account, according to Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press on Saturday (local time).

The video shows a monkey dressed in traditional Filipino clothing singing at the direction of figures representing the United States and Japan. After being called "stupid," the monkey produces a piece of paper labeled "South China Sea arbitration ruling," only to be thrown into the sea and hit with water cannons.

The video was posted on Friday — the same day the Philippines held commemorations marking the 10th anniversary of the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling on the South China Sea territorial dispute.

China has long claimed most of the South China Sea within a U-shaped line of nine dashes, asserting the enclosed waters as its territory. The Philippines filed a case against China with the PCA in 2013, arguing Beijing had violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and in effect won the case in 2016 when the court ruled that China's territorial claims had no legal basis. China has ignored the ruling and continued to clash with the Philippines as well as Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei over the disputed waters.

The Philippines has taken an increasingly hard line against China since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022, reversing his predecessor's pro-Beijing stance and enacting legislation to defend the country's South China Sea claims.

The Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the video "racist and gravely offensive" and said it was "reprehensible and unacceptable," demanding that China remove the "irresponsible material" and urging Beijing to uphold dignity and respect in public discourse.

Philippine Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro also issued a statement strongly criticizing China, saying the Chinese Communist Party's recent conduct had become too blatant to ignore or overlook, and that the incident once again exposed China as neither a stable nor trustworthy neighbor.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the video did not represent Beijing's official position and that it had no further comment. The video has since been removed from China Daily's Facebook page.


why37@heraldcorp.com