IN a rather frustrating development in the ongoing exchange of provocative rhetoric between the Chinese Embassy in Manila and some officials of our government, the embassy and Commodore Jay Tarriela, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, traded barbs on Facebook on Thursday over a news video produced by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). Coming as it does after recent and apparently positive meetings between Chinese officials and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan and Sen. Erwin Tulfo, the latest spat leads one to the unfortunate conclusion that both sides are either less committed to peaceful relations than they say, or are incapable of keeping their tempers in check.
The latest trouble began when Tarriela shared the PCIJ video, which was an “explainer” about how to identify “pro-China propaganda” online, at one point describing it as “foreign influence operations by China here in the Philippines.” In response, the Chinese Embassy made a post alleging that PCIJ had received a number of grants over a multiyear period from the United States-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED), even posting screenshots from the NED website identifying the PCIJ and the amounts received, with the most recent one apparently being in February 2021.
NED is a private nonprofit formed through a bipartisan initiative in the 1980s led by then-US president Ronald Reagan, and is funded by a combination of an annual appropriation from the US Congress and donations by private-sector donors. In an August 2024 statement posted on the China Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ official website, the ministry described NED as the US government’s “white gloves” in “subverting state power in other countries, meddling in other countries’ internal affairs, inciting division and confrontation, misleading public opinion, and conducting ideological infiltration, all under the pretext of promoting democracy.”
That is quite an exaggeration, although it is not completely off the mark. NED is considered an important soft-power tool by the US, with the goal of building acceptance of the American version of “democratic ideals” and positive perceptions toward the US. It is also not at all unusual, as most countries with the capacity to do so engage in such influence-building activities.
China does as well, most of it quite openly through engagements with the local media and various business, educational, and cultural groups, but perhaps also in the direct fashion it alleged NED had done with the PCIJ. We say perhaps, because that activity, if it exists, is not publicly disclosed.
Here is the odd thing about the latest clash of social media posts, however: NED does not publicly disclose who its grantees are, either, despite the impression the purported evidence posted by the embassy may give. A several hour search of the NED website was unable to produce the web pages shown in the embassy’s Facebook post, and except for NED’s own affiliated “core institutions,” of which there are four, no grantees anywhere in the world are publicly identified, although the amounts and purposes of the grants are. NED explains this as necessary discretion because many organizations have safety and security concerns.
Unverifiable
So, to summarize, PCIJ made allegations against the Chinese government that may be true, but are unverifiable. Rather than addressing those allegations directly, the Chinese Embassy then engaged in “what-aboutism” by responding with the same sort of possibly true but unverifiable allegations against PCIJ. And then PCG’s Tarriela, who seems to be more concerned with cultivating his image as an antagonist than focusing on West Philippine Sea affairs, entered the fray to further stir up public outrage. Nobody involved in this fracas was right, and their actions only served to sow divisions among Filipinos, and to undermine other, calmer efforts to improve relations.
It needs to stop. On the part of the two governments, inflammatory and reactionary statements must cease. Commodore Tarriela should be told to stop being a hothead, or be given a different assignment. Likewise, the Chinese Embassy should reconsider its stated policy to “respond firmly to smears,” as those responses do not stop offensive remarks, but only invite more of the same. As for media organizations and practitioners of any scale, they should be reminded that their credibility depends on honesty and transparency, and disclose potential conflicts of interest, as not doing so is not only unethical, it encourages nefarious assumptions to be made about one’s motives.