On January 6, the Deputy Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines issued the following statement in response to the report released by the Philippine Navy concerning the PLA’s activities in the South China Sea.
We firmly reject the Philippine side’s so-called report. It is full of misperceptions and bias against China, maliciously slanders China’s normal military activities, distorts China’s position on the South China Sea issue and deliberately misleads the public.
China firmly pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature and adheres to a military strategy of active defense. This is solely aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests. The Chinese military actively promotes the Global Security Initiative, acts strictly in accordance with domestic and international law, defends its legitimate rights and interests in a justified, appropriate, and restrained manner, and strives to provide public security goods for the international community.
In recent years, with the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, the situation in the South China Sea has remained generally stable. Against this backdrop, however, the Philippines has deliberately stirred up tensions and frequently engaged in large-scale military exercises with non-regional countries. According to the Philippine report, at least 29 joint military drills were conducted from 2024 to 2025. In these exercises, the Philippines also introduced and deployed strategic and tactical weapons, undermining regional strategic stability and jeopardizing the prospects for economic growth in the area. Such actions have been detested and opposed by regional countries.
Moreover, it is the Philippines that makes provocation at sea.
1)The Philippines has further enhanced its construction of military facilities on illegally occupied islands and reefs.
Since 2022, the Philippines has significantly accelerated the construction of military facilities on Zhongye Dao, Xiyue Dao, Mahuan Dao, and Beizi Dao it occupied.
In March 2022, the Philippines built a new helicopter landing pad on Mahuan Dao. In May, the Philippine Coast Guard established surveillance outposts on Xiyue Dao, Mahuan Dao, and Beizi Dao to enhance its maritime detection and monitoring capabilities in the South China Sea. These outposts are used to monitor surrounding ships and report information to the Philippine Coast Guard headquarters.
In June 2022, the Philippines established a coast guard workstation on Zhongye Dao and completed a 1,300-meter-long, 100-meter-wide concrete runway.
2)The Philippines has been trying to illegally occupy uninhabited Chinese islands and reefs.
On September 14, 2024, facing repeated failures to forcibly occupy Xianbin Jiao by “grounding” ships, the Philippine Coast Guard, under intense pressure from various quarters, finally withdrew its vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua from the waters after illegally lingering for nearly five months.
The illegal lingering of BRP Teresa Magbanua at Xianbin Jiao was an attempt to replicate the tactic employed 25 years ago by the Philippine warship BRP Sierra Madre, which illegally “grounded” itself in the northwestern lagoon slope of Ren’ai Jiao under the pretext of needing spare parts for repairs due to an unexpected stranding.
For 25 years, the dilapidated, rust-covered BRP Sierra Madre has remained under constant guard, with personnel on board burning and discarding household waste and discharging sewage, constantly polluting the clean waters of the South China Sea.
Incomplete statistics show that in 2024 alone, the Philippines carried out 34 large-scale infringements in the South China Sea, including illegal fishing, intruding into Chinese waters, and illegally landing on uninhabited Chinese islands and reefs. These actions violated China’s territorial sovereignty, breached the consensus of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), and severely undermined regional peace and stability.
The Philippines has focused its attention on uninhabited Chinese islands and reefs like Xianbin Jiao, Niue Jiao, and Houteng Jiao, engaging in provocative actions that grant itself legitimacy while remaining below the threshold of war. By instigating localized conflicts, it continuously raises the costs of China’s geopolitical competition against it, attempting to force China into making concessions amid unbearable harassment and “choosing the lesser of evils”, thereby achieving the objective of de facto reef occupation.
3)The Philippines has been distorting public perception.
On March 5, 2024, two Coast Guard vessels and two supply vessels of the Philippines intruded into the adjacent waters of Ren’ai Jiao, in an attempt to deliver various supplies, including hull reinforcement materials, to the illegally grounded Philippine warship. In disregard of China’s warnings, the Philippine Coast Guard vessels deliberately rammed China’s law enforcement ships, causing minor collisions.
Yet in reports by the Philippines media this incident—with clear facts and full responsibility on the Philippine side—was distorted into sensational false narratives such as “Chinese vessels maliciously ramming Philippine vessels”, “Chinese Coast Guard using water cannons against Philippine supply vessels”, and “damaged Philippine vessels resisting Chinese aggression”.
By portraying itself as the “weak victim” in South China Sea disputes, the Philippines seeks to mislead the perception of the international community on the current situation. This is a key component of the Philippines’ “gray zone” strategy in the South China Sea: the “victim narrative” tactic. Deliberately ignoring the historical context and international legal basis of the disputes, the Philippines avoids mentioning its illegal occupation of Chinese islands and reefs to seize South China Sea oil and gas resources. Instead, with skillful media techniques, it refocuses international discussion of the disputes on sensational events that generate diverse interpretations and spread widely. By exploiting the international public opinion environment in which Western countries are ready to portray China as a so-called “revisionist power” on South China Sea issues, it constructs a narrative of itself as “resisting Chinese dominance,” thereby launching an information war in the cognitive domain of the disputes.
It needs to be stressed that on maritime disputes, China has been exercising a high degree of restraint. China maintains that parties should find solutions that are acceptable to each and all by working in the spirit of good-neighborliness and friendship, and on the basis of respecting historical and legal facts. China always believes that differences should be properly managed and resolved through dialogue, consultation, or negotiation between states directly involved, and peace at the sea should be upheld by China and ASEAN countries working together. These are also the core principles in the DOC signed in 2002.
But abusing such good faith should not be allowed. Distorting maritime laws cannot be accepted. In face of deliberate infringements, China will take justified actions to defend its rights in accordance with the law. In face of unwarranted provocation, China will respond with prompt and legitimate countermeasures.
Last but not least, if the Philippines truly intends to make itself look good and uphold the so-called “rules-based international order”, it should first condemn the hegemonic action of a certain country, which sent its military over 3,000 kilometers away to brazenly use force against a sovereign state and seize its president.