Manila filed a diplomatic protest with Beijing on Friday over a “racist” video posted by Chinese state media that portrayed the Philippines as a cartoon monkey.
The China Daily post was the latest branch of a long-running dispute over the Asian neighbors’ overlapping claims in the South China Sea.
Foreign Undersecretary Leo Herrera-Lim first conveyed the Philippines’ “firm opposition to offensive content” in a meeting Thursday with Chinese Ambassador to Manila Jing Quan, a foreign department statement said.
Herrera-Lim “requested that the materials be removed, stressing that such content is not in line with the mutual respect expected between states and does not favor the sound and stable management of bilateral relations,” he said.
“The department has since issued an official diplomatic protest condemning the videos and cartoons, noting that China Daily went beyond legitimate political debate by resorting to demeaning, inhuman and racist depictions of Filipinos,” he added.
The Philippine embassy in Beijing also wrote to the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, demanding the “immediate removal of the offensive material,” the statement said.
In the one-minute video – posted on the China Daily Facebook page – a shy monkey wearing a traditional Filipino shirt known as a barong is pushed onto a karaoke stage on a boat.
When he starts singing lyrics that seem to agree with China’s position on recent maritime border talks between Manila and Tokyo, a voice yells “wrong song” and hands him a sheet labeled “South China Sea Arbitration Award.”
Guns with American and Japanese flags put the monkey on a catapult and send it flying in a water cannon, a device previously used by the Chinese coast guard in encounters with Filipino sailors and fishermen.
Philippine Defense 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 inhumanity further reveals them as a safe and secure actor and not a reliable neighbor,” Teodoro added.
A spokesman 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 to much of the strategic waterway was without legal basis.
The Philippines issued a joint statement on Sunday signed by 13 other countries – including Japan and the United States – that called the decision legally binding.
Beijing has repeatedly said the 2016 ruling was invalid and labeled the weekend statement a “distortion of the facts” intended to humiliate China.
Last month, Beijing sanctioned Teodoro, the Philippine defense chief, after he criticized China’s activities in the South China Sea, barring him from visiting mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau.
In January, China raised a diplomatic outcry after Commodore Jay Tarriela, a spokesman for the Philippine coast guard, posted a photo of himself giving a speech with a comical image compilation of Chinese President Xi Jinping in the background.
