Philippines condemns Chinese AI video mocking it over South China Sea tensions

The Philippines has condemned an AI-generated video posted by a Chinese state-linked newspaper that portrayed the country as a monkey being manipulated by the United States and Japan in a South China Sea dispute. Manila said the clip was dehumanising, racist and propaganda, and demanded that it be removed. The video remains visible on the outlet's Facebook page, according to the supplied material.

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The video was posted on 10 July and was still online at the time of reporting. It shows a monkey wearing a Filipino shirt being pushed onto a rickety karaoke stage by arms bearing Japanese and US flags, before being scolded for singing the wrong song. The character then pulls out a sheet reading "South China Sea arbitration award" before being thrown into the sea and hit by a water cannon.

Manila's foreign ministry said disagreement over legal and political issues did not justify disturbing imagery, while the defence ministry called it contemptible propaganda. The row comes against a backdrop of repeated confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in disputed waters. The supplied material says tense stand-offs and occasional violent encounters have increased in recent years, with Chinese coast guard vessels routinely using high-pressure water cannons against Philippine boats in the disputed shoals.

Those incidents have caused damage and injuries, underscoring how maritime friction has become a recurring feature of the relationship between the two countries. The latest dispute adds an information warfare dimension to an already volatile maritime confrontation. At the centre of the wider territorial dispute are the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, which the supplied material says lies a little more than 100 miles, or 160 kilometres, from the Philippines and 500 miles from China.

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The past week also marked a decade since the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favour of the Philippines, finding that China's expansive claims in the South China Sea had no legal basis under international law. Beijing has ignored that ruling and says the tribunal lacked jurisdiction, leaving the legal and diplomatic dispute unresolved. The incident is significant because it combines a long-running sovereignty dispute with a public messaging campaign that Manila says crosses a line.

The Philippines has repeatedly sought to frame the issue as one of international law and maritime rights, while China has rejected the tribunal ruling and continued to assert its claims. The use of AI-generated imagery in this context suggests a more aggressive and modernised form of state-aligned messaging, even as the underlying dispute remains rooted in contested waters and competing legal positions. What remains unclear is whether the video will be taken down or whether either side will escalate the exchange further.

The supplied material does not indicate any immediate diplomatic retaliation beyond the public condemnations from Manila's foreign and defence ministries. The broader issue to watch is whether similar content appears again as maritime tensions continue, and whether the dispute over the South China Sea becomes more closely tied to online influence campaigns as well as physical confrontations at sea.

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