MANILA, July 17 — The Philippines has strongly condemned state-run China Daily for releasing an AI-generated video depicting Filipinos as monkeys, describing the imagery as “offensive, distressing and unacceptable” and drawing a firm line against what it called dehumanising propaganda.
Manila has demanded that the video, posted on China Daily’s Facebook account on July 10, be taken down. The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The video portrayed a monkey dressed in Filipino attire being directed by arms representing the US and Japan on what to sing. After being called “stupid”, the monkey pulled out a sheet of lyrics bearing the words “South China Sea arbitration award” before being thrown into the sea and blasted by a vessel’s water cannon.
Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro denounced the material as “contemptible propaganda” and “a disgrace to any state that claims to exercise responsible regional leadership”.
He said the episode exposed “the weakness of a government that resorts to racism, threats, and manufactured hatred because it has utterly failed to defend its ridiculous claims through reason, evidence, or law”.
“This mockery of the lawful 2016 arbitral award and the video’s glorification of violence against the Filipino people and soldiers expose the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China’s propaganda machine,” Teodoro said late on Thursday.
China Daily’s AI-generated video was posted on July 10, coinciding with Philippine events marking the 10th anniversary of a landmark arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea. Beijing rejects the ruling.
“The recent spate of schizophrenic behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party is too clear to disregard or ignore. This latest act of dehumanisation further reveals them as neither a secure and confident actor nor a trustworthy neighbour,” Teodoro said in a statement.
Manila’s sharp rebuke comes at a time when relations between the Philippines and China are already strained by tensions in the South China Sea, including repeated confrontations at sea, aggressive manoeuvres by Chinese vessels, Beijing’s sanctions against Teodoro and, more recently, a floating barrier installed by China at the entrance to the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which was later removed following Philippine protests.
“We draw a firm line at the depiction of Filipinos as monkeys in the July 10, 2026 video, which is deeply offensive, distressing and unacceptable,” the Philippine foreign ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.
