Attacking the Light, Defending the Darkness: Beijing’s Echo Chamber in Manila
On Thursday, China’s Embassy in Manila released a sharp statement attacking both me and SeaLight, the non-profit maritime transparency organization I have the privilege to lead. Its grievance? I published an investigative report detailing how the embassy directs local Mandarin-language media to amplify Beijing’s propaganda within the Philippines.
In its response, the embassy accused me of all manner of sins, to include inciting “hatred”, spreading “smears”, and attempting to “sabotage” China-Philippines relations.
Yet it did not dispute a single fact I reported. Not one.
READ: West PH Sea body rejects Chinese Embassy’s ‘false, misleading’ claims
The embassy did not deny that Ambassador Jing Quan recently summoned executives from eight Manila-based Mandarin news outlets, reportedly inspiring them to “cooperate closely” with the embassy and “carry forward the tradition of patriotism and love for the homeland”—by which they clearly meant China, not the Philippines.
It did not deny that the outlet that carried this report, Chinatown News TV, systematically reposts state media propaganda that attacks Philippine sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.
The embassy did not deny that Dong Bacui, the editor-in-chief of another Manila-based outlet, the United Daily News, sits on the board of a Chinese Communist Party United Front organization—one which is explicitly chartered with globally promoting Taiwan’s absorption by China—and also serves as its leader in the Philippines.
READ: Hontiveros calls Chinese Embassy a ‘bad guest,’ urges DFA action
Instead, it directly attacked the messenger. This is the embassy’s new normal, a tactic it is deploying with alarming aggression—not just against me, but against a host of prolific Philippine government officials.Over the past three weeks, the Chinese Embassy in Manila has mounted a barrage of social media attacks on senior officials – including the Coast Guard’s West Philippine Sea spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela, Senators Risa Hontiveros and Kiko Pangilinan, and Congressional representatives Leila de Lima and Chel Diokno. It has questioned their integrity, filed diplomatic protests, publicly condemned their statements on China and the West Philippine Sea, and warned ominously that those who challenge its narrative will “pay the price.” Ambassador Jing Quan himself has vowed to “push back firmly without hesitation” against anyone spreading what China deems “misinformation.”
This pattern reveals Beijing’s staggering insecurity, its contempt for the Philippines’ democratic system, and its deep hypocrisy regarding diplomatic norms.
Indeed, while the embassy in Manila cries foul over the kinds of policy debates and investigative reporting common to free societies, its counterpart in Japan operates by a shockingly different standard. Just two months ago, Chinese Consul General Xue Jian in Osaka posted on social media that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s “dirty neck” should be “cut off without a moment’s hesitation” for her factual comments about Taiwan’s significance to Japan’s security. While this outrageously offensive and threatening post—targeting the head of government of the country to which he was assigned as a diplomat—was later deleted, Beijing did not fire Xue Jian nor did it repudiate his statement.
This is Beijing’s diplomatic double standard at play: violent threats against foreign leaders are acceptable diplomacy, but when democratically elected officials and independent non-profit watchdogs state facts about international maritime law and direct foreign interference, they must be silenced.The embassy’s attempt to intimidate its critics and interfere with its host country’s political system is precisely why former diplomat Jim Carouso and I recently argued that the Philippines should consider adopting a system similar to Australia’s Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme.
READ: China cries ‘slander’ over Tarriela’s use of altered Xi images
In Australia, organizations like the Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China that explicitly carry out influence operations at the behest of foreign government are designated as foreign agents—they are recognized as state-directed instruments, not independent community groups. This model would be directly applicable in Manila, where the sister organization of that very group—led by the same newspaper editor mentioned in my report—continues to operate in the shadows, influencing and even directing local media without public accountability.
Ambassador Jing Quan claims that my reporting “sabotages” China-Philippines relations, but the real sabotage is Beijing’s campaign to intimidate Philippine officials while co-opting local “news” outlets to amplify propaganda that undermines Philippine national interests.
If the embassy believes its relationship with the local Mandarin-language press is “entirely proper and beyond reproach,” as it claims, it should welcome even more transparency. It should not fear public scrutiny but should applaud a Philippine effort to implement its own counter-interference law and transparency scheme.
The embassy’s statement inadvertently proved the very point of my investigation: Beijing demands an echo chamber, not a partnership. Then, when exposed, its officials attack the light because they cannot defend the darkness. /dl
Ray Powell is the Executive Director of the SeaLight Foundation.
