The Philippines has strongly condemned an AI-generated video published by Chinese state media that depicts a Filipino as a monkey. The one-minute animated clip, posted on July 10, 2026, on China Daily's Facebook page, features a monkey wearing a traditional Filipino shirt being shoved onto a karaoke stage by hands bearing U.S. and Japanese flags. After pulling out a document labeled "South China Sea arbitration award" from its pocket, the monkey is launched into the sea and blasted with a water cannon.
On July 16, 2026, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela denounced the cartoon as "naked racism" on the social media platform X. The Philippine foreign ministry has demanded the video's immediate removal, calling it "dehumanising," while Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro dismissed the clip as "contemptible propaganda."
The diplomatic spat follows broader tensions in the South China Sea. Beijing, which previously barred Teodoro and his family from entering Chinese territories in June 2026, has reaffirmed that the 2016 South China Sea arbitration ruling is invalid.