Tinio cites China 'hypocrisy', recalls Xi caricature issue
Published Jul 17, 2026 03:54 pm
At A Glance
- Rep. Antonio Tinio denounces China Daily's AI video, which depicts Filipinos as monkeys controlled by the US and Japan, calling it racist and hypocritical.
- He demands an apology and removal of the video, stressing that China cannot demand respect for its leaders while insulting the Filipino people and violating sovereign rights.
- Tinio asserts the portrayal exposes China's weakness and propaganda failure, as the Philippines continues to uphold its arbitral victory invalidating the nine-dash line claim in the West Philippine Sea.
ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio (left), Chinese President Xi Jinping (Facebook)
House Deputy Minority Leader ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio highlighted on Friday, 17 the hypocrisy of the Chinese government in connection with its state media's "racist" depiction of Filipinos as monkeys.
In an artifical intelligence (AI)-animated video released by China Daily, the Philippines was portrayed as a “ragged monkey” being controlled by the United States (US) and Japan and subjected to water cannon attack by the Chinese coast guard.
Tnio called for an official apology on top of the immediate take-down of the video.
At any rate, the Makabayan congressman cited the hypocrisy of Chinese authorities, who recently threw a diplomatic fit over a single caricature of President Xi Jinping.
Yet now, they produced a state-sponsored video that baselessly insults the Filipino people.
“The Chinese government cannot have it both ways. They demand absolute respect for their leaders while openly ridiculing and insulting our entire nation," Tinio said.
"This is not the behavior of a responsible neighbor or a peaceful actor. It is the bullying of a hegemon that believes it can violate our sovereign rights with no consequences,” said the militant solon.
Earlier this year, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela used cartoon illustrations of Xi during a public university lecture to highlight Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). It prompted a diplomatic protest from Beijing.
Tinio wondered just how entrenched this "subhuman" view of Filipinos was in Chinese society.
“We vigorously denounce this disgusting, racist portrayal of Filipinos. So this is what the state media teaches the Chinese people about their neighboring country? That Filipinos are subhumans incapable of asserting their sovereign rights?" he asked.
"The video exposes not strength but the profound weakness and moral bankruptcy of China's propaganda machinery, which has failed to defend its absurd and baseless claims in the [WPS] through reason, evidence, or law," Tinio said.
The Philippines recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its landmark July 12, 2016 arbitral case victory from the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.
The ruling invalidated China’s sweeping nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea. Beijing has never recognized the decision.