Protest filed over ‘racist’ China state media video portraying the Philippines as a monkey

Manila lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing on Friday over a “racist” video posted by Chinese state media portraying the Philippines as a cartoon monkey.

The China Daily post was the latest offshoot of a long-running dispute over the Asian neighbours’ overlapping South China Sea claims.

Foreign Undersecretary Leo Herrera-Lim first conveyed the Philippines’ “firm objection to the offensive content” in a meeting Thursday with Chinese ambassador to Manila Jing Quan, a foreign department statement said.

Herrera-Lim “demanded that the materials be taken down, stressing that such content is inconsistent with the mutual respect expected between states and does no favours to the sound and stable management of bilateral relations”, it said.

“The department has since issued a formal diplomatic protest condemning the videos and cartoons, noting that China Daily went beyond legitimate political debate by resorting to demeaning, dehumanizing and racist depictions of Filipinos,” it added.

The Philippine embassy in Beijing also wrote to the paper’s editor-in-chief, demanding the “immediate takedown of the offensive material”, the statement said.

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 labelled “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 Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said in a statement late Thursday that “the video’s glorification of violence against the Filipino people and soldiers exposes the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China’s propaganda machine”.

“This latest act of dehumanisation further reveals them as neither a secure and confident actor nor a trustworthy neighbour,” Teodoro added.

A spokesperson said China’s foreign ministry in Beijing would not comment on the video as it “does not represent the official position”.

Manila on Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of an international arbitration ruling that Beijing’s claim over most of the strategic waterway was without legal basis.

The Philippines issued a joint statement Sunday 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 labelled the weekend statement a “distortion of the facts” aimed at vilifying China.

Last month, Beijing sanctioned Teodoro, the Philippine defence chief, 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 Commodore Jay Tarriela, a Philippine 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.