Philippines condemns China Daily’s AI monkey video as racist amid escalating South China Sea tensions and maritime dispute
MANILA: The Philippines on Thursday slammed as racist a video posted by Chinese state media portraying the country as a cartoon monkey forced by US and Japanese masters to defend its South China Sea claims.
China claims almost the entirety of the crucial waterway despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, and has frequently clashed with Philippine vessels in the area.
In the minute-long video, posted to the China Daily Facebook page, a timid monkey wearing a traditional Filipino shirt known as a barong is shoved onto a karaoke stage on a boat.
When it begins singing lyrics that seem to agree with China’s position on recent maritime delimitation talks between Manila and Tokyo, a voice shouts “wrong song!” and hands it a sheet labeled “South China Sea Arbitration Award”.
Arms bearing US and Japanese flags then put the monkey in a catapult and send it flying into a water cannon, a tool previously employed by the Chinese coast guard in encounters with Filipino sailors and fishermen.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela blasted the cartoon as racist, sharing it on social media platform X on Thursday to condemn its “outright racism”.
“Racism has no place in this day and age — and racism meant to belittle another race deserves nothing but condemnation. Filipinos are not monkeys!” he said in a post.
“I don’t think there is any other justifiable reason to come up with this AI video to portray Filipinos as monkeys,” Tarriela told AFP separately.
Calls to the Chinese Embassy in Manila were not immediately returned.
On Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the Hague arbitration ruling in its favour, the Philippines issued a joint statement signed by 13 other countries, including Japan and the United States, that called the ruling legally binding.
Beijing has repeatedly said the 2016 ruling was invalid and labeled the weekend statement a “distortion of the facts” aimed at vilifying China.
Last month, Beijing sanctioned Philippine defence chief Gilberto Teodoro after he criticised China’s activities in the South China Sea, barring him from visiting China’s mainland, Hong Kong or Macau.
In January, China filed a diplomatic protest after Tarriela, the coast guard spokesman, posted a photo of himself giving a speech with a compilation of comical images of Chinese President Xi Jinping in the background.
