A controversial short video circulated on China Daily’s Facebook page on 10 July, showing an animated monkey wearing a Philippine shirt being forced onto a rickety karaoke stage in a boat by figures symbolising the United States and Japan. The monkey screamed, tried to sing an incorrect song, and then had a sheet titled "South China Sea arbitration award" thrust into it before being flung into the sea and struck by a water cannon.
In response, Manila’s foreign ministry called the clip "dehumanising and racist", noting that such imagery has no place in civil public discourse. It urged China Daily to remove the post, arguing that propaganda fuels distrust between the two countries.
The defence ministry called the video "contemptible propaganda" and highlighted the "moral and intellectual bankruptcy" of China’s propaganda machinery, with Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro pointing out that the Chinese Communist Party’s recent behavior is clear and cannot be ignored.
The clip arrived a decade after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favour of the Philippines that China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea lack legal basis. Beijing has dismissed the ruling as lacking jurisdiction.
Recent maritime confrontations—such as Chinese coastguard vessels blasting water cannons at Philippine boats and other skirmishes involving swords and knives—have intensified grievances over the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, just 160km from Manila and 500 miles from Beijing.
Earlier this month, China erected a floating barrier at the entrance to the Scarborough Shoal, a move that was reversed following diplomatic protests from Manila. China also barred Defence Secretary Teodoro and his family from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau in June.
China Daily’s caption accompanying the monkey clip repeatedly referenced the arbitration award as a "source of confrontation dressed up as law" and critiqued the Philippines for turning the country into a pawn of external forces in its geopolitical struggle. Other similar cartoons mocking Manila have been posted in recent weeks.
No official response from Chinese authorities has yet been issued following the Philippines’ rebuke.
