A maritime transparency initiative group, the Sealight Foundation, is investigating the extent of alleged Chinese influence operations in the Philippines.
Speaking at a forum on Saturday, global security expert Ray Powell of Sealight said China’s activities have extended beyond Philippine waters.
“Beijing’s goal is not merely to control the reefs and shoals of the West Philippine Sea; it is to convince the people of the Philippines to stop resisting and accept Chinese control as a permanent fact of life,” Powell said.
Powell said China’s political warfare in Manila has been as aggressive as its actions in the West Philippine Sea.
“Sealight has been investigating machinery that lies deep behind that campaign—the network of interlocking organizations all connected to the Chinese Communist Party, all operating here in the Philippines,” he added.
“The connections are not secret, but they are written in a language most Filipinos do not speak.”
Powell said Beijing’s messaging has been embedded in many forms, such as Chinese state media and embassy press releases, often echoed in Filipino-Chinese language media.
He said they documented how Ambassador Huang Xilian summoned executives of Manila media outlets, telling them to cooperate closely with the embassy and carry forward patriotism and love for the homeland.
“He was not talking about the Philippines,” Powell said.
Powell also noted how the Chinese embassy in the Philippines criticized investigations by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and journalist Regine Cabato.
Aside from media, Powell said Chinese-language education has also been targeted.
“Since 1991, the Philippine Chinese Education Research Center had what Beijing called the ‘blood transfusion plan,’ dispatching 5,000 mainland teachers to Philippine Chinese-language schools,” he said.
Powell clarified that the investigation is not meant to stigmatize the Filipino-Chinese community.
“Our investigations do not target them; they target the hostile foreign state that seeks to take over those institutions and exploit them,” he said.
