China's Foreign Ministry Weighs In on Philippine Coast Guard's Spokesman
An escalating war of words between the Philippine Coast Guard's top spokesman and the Chinese embassy in Manila has caught the attention of the powers that be in Beijing, prompting the Chinese foreign ministry to threaten that the Philippine government will "pay the price for their own wrongdoings."
The unusually public flare-up is the latest manifestation of a long-running confrontation between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, where China's sweeping territorial claims overlap the Philippine exclusive economic zone. Though China's "nine-dash-line" claim to Philippine waters was invalidated by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in 2016, Beijing has its own interpretation, and it maintains that it has an EEZ extending some 500 nautical miles from mainland China. Beijing declines to publish the exact coordinates of these claimed maritime boundaries, but they generally follow the contours of its neighbors' coastal waters.
In an attempt to assert control in this region and eject the Philippine presence, China has gradually ramped up a campaign of occupation and patrol. Its forces seized Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012; built out a ring of island fortresses in the Spratly Islands in 2013-16; and began blockading the Philippine installation at Second Thomas Shoal in 2023-24. An active China Coast Guard gray-zone campaign targeted at Philippine fishermen continues near Scarborough Shoal and Sabina Shoal.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela is the public face of the PCG's pushback in the South China Sea, and he is a vocal opponent of Chinese influence operations in the Philippines. His descriptive terms for the China Coast Guard's actions in the Philippine EEZ are "barbaric, illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive."
In late December, when Tarriela highlighted a patrol operation to shadow a Chinese research vessel in Philippine waters, he drew a rare personal response from Guo Wei, deputy spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Manila. The conversation quickly turned into an exchange of escalating personal attacks, a familiar format on social media: Guo suggested that Tarriela should "at least check the basic facts"; Tarriela intimated that Guo was trying to hide unauthorized research in Philippine waters, a UNCLOS breach. Guo then accused Tarriela of "tricks of rambling, confusing right and wrong, inciting confrontation, and misleading public opinion"; and Tarriela called Guo's style "combative, full of lies, and unnecessarily abrasive," questioning his professionalism.
Philippine Congresswoman Manay Leila weighed in to defend Tarriela. Critiquing the Chinese Embassy in Manila, she indicated that its position was inaccurate, and suggested it should "stop pretending to be a diplomatic mission and convert itself into just another Chinese troll farm."
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After this exchange, China's foreign ministry and its state media enterprise took up the campaign at press conferences, on social media and in print. Particularly objectionable, according to China Daily, was a slide that Tarriela had displayed with images of Chinese leaders alongside the phrase "China remains to be a bully [sic]."
"China condemns the disinformation and smear campaign against China by a "spokesperson' of Philippine Coast Guard [Tarriela]," said top Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Monday. "We urge the Philippine side to stop provocation and reversing right and wrong, or they will pay the price for their own wrongdoings."
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