The Philippines has condemned an video posted by China Daily on July 10, calling it racist and contemptible propaganda, according to the BBC. The video features a monkey in a Filipino shirt that 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” and is then flung into the sea and criticized by a water cannon.

Tensions Over South China Sea

Tense stand-offs and occasional violent confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed waters have grown in recent years, the BBC reported. At the center of the 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.

Philippine Response

“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 defence ministry called the video “contemptible propaganda,” saying it “exposes the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China’s propaganda machine.” 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.

Historical and Political Context

Defence secretary Gilbert Teodoro said, “The recent spate of schizophrenic behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party is too clear to disregard or ignore.” The video remains on China Daily’s Facebook page as of the time of writing.