Teodoro’s public rebuke of Chinese note in Seoul risks adding tension to strained Manila-Beijing ties

SINGAPORE/MANILA - Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr’s public response to a note from a Chinese embassy military attaché during a security forum in Seoul has drawn attention at home and is likely to add to tensions between Manila and Beijing.China has yet to give a strong rebuttal to Teodoro’s comments but a Chinese analyst said that it could choose to respond through coast guard enforcement action in the South China Sea when the opportunity arose. China and the Philippines have territorial disputes in the busy waterway and skirmishes there between the two sides have increased in recent years.Beijing could use this episode to ramp up nationalistic rhetoric against Manila, others have said.The exchange took place during the Seoul Defence Dialogue on Sept 8 when Teodoro was speaking about the South China Sea.A note setting out China’s position on the 2016 South China Sea arbitration ruling was handed to him during his remarks. Manila had taken Beijing to international court under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) over their disputes.That note, spelling out Beijing’s rejection of the legally binding ruling that was in favour of Manila, came from a military attaché at the Chinese embassy in Seoul, according to organisers of the forum, as reported by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.Teodoro read the note aloud and criticised China’s actions in the South China Sea, referring to “coercion, bullying and aggression” and accusing Beijing of violating UNCLOS, of which it is a signatory.The episode has played well at home, where videos of Teodoro’s action at the forum was widely shared on social media by Filipinos.Local politicians and officials weighed in, with Senator Erwin Tulfo praising the secretary for doing “the right thing” by standing his ground.Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela went further, calling the episode evidence of what he described as China’s bullying and urging international condemnation of Beijing’s South China Sea conduct.Dr Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, was in the audience during the session in Seoul and recalled that a delegate seated in front of him began clapping after Teodoro finished his rebuttal, before much of the audience joined in.“That was quite rousing at the moment,” he told The Straits Times, adding that the episode was “an embarrassment for China”, as it saw its arguments rebutted point by point before an international audience.He added that the applause was indicative of the attitude of South-east Asian countries, which was: “We like what you’re doing, and we applaud you for doing that... but sorry, we’re not going to be like you.”China’s Foreign Ministry did not directly confirm the circumstances of the Seoul exchange when asked about it on Sept 9. Spokeswoman Mao Ning said she was “not sure what exactly happened at the event”, but reiterated China’s longstanding rejection of the 2016 arbitral award.“We urge the certain individual of the Philippine side to cut the provocations and theatrics, and stop undermining China-Philippines relations and stability in the South China Sea,” Mao said, without naming Teodoro.On July 12, to mark the 10th anniversary of the UNCLOS ruling, the Philippines joined Japan, the United States and 11 other countries in a statement which said that China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis.‘More consequential response’Professor Shi Yinhong, director of the Centre for American Studies at Beijing’s Renmin University of China, dismissed Teodoro’s conduct in Seoul as “nothing exceptional”, adding that the Philippines and China had seen confrontations and smaller disputes for more than a decade, particularly over the South China Sea.He noted that China did not appear to have had a meaningful official delegation or senior representative at the forum. Had Beijing been represented by an official in a position to respond, Teodoro’s remarks would not have gone unanswered on stage, Shi argued.A more consequential Chinese response, if Beijing chose to make one, could instead come in the South China Sea through coast guard enforcement action rather than at a forum, Shi told The Straits Times. But whether such action occurred in the near term “depends on the opportunity, which would not necessarily occur”, he added.However, Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University, said he did not believe the note incident would prompt China to step up pressure or confrontation against the Philippines in the South China Sea.Instead, the embassy attaché’s decision to pass Teodoro the written note at the Seoul forum reflected the Chinese military’s concern about the Philippine defence chief’s visit to South Korea, Zhu said. “Beijing fears that Manila is actively courting Seoul to join the US and Japan in aggressively intervening in the South China Sea situation and bolstering the Philippines’ stance against China,” he said.The note was intended to remind the Philippines that bringing in outside powers would not alter China’s maritime claims, but could instead make efforts to stabilise the situation “more unpredictable”, he added.China on June 11 announced sanctions against Teodoro over “irresponsible remarks”, banning the Philippine secretary and his spouse and child from entering China’s mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.Dai Fan, director of the Center for Philippine Studies at Jinan University, told the Global Times newspaper that the episode should not be viewed in isolation, but rather against the broader backdrop of Teodoro’s series of political provocations involving maritime and China-related issues in recent years.As defence secretary, his remarks and actions should serve the Philippines’ overall foreign policy, but some of his statements have even been out of step with those of the Philippine president and official positions, Dai was quoted as saying by the Chinese state-owned news outlet.On Aug 14, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said during a luncheon held by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines that a joint oil and gas exploration deal with Beijing in the South China Sea is a “distinct possibility”, but added that he could not give a timetable.Former Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio, who was part of the Philippine legal team that brought the South China Sea arbitration case against Beijing, said Teodoro had used the latest incident in Seoul to reinforce Manila’s legal position before an international audience.“The Chinese have always said that they don’t recognise the (UNCLOS) award because it’s illegal, because they did not give their consent (to the arbitration),” he told The Straits Times. “But everybody knows that the moment you sign and ratify UNCLOS, you give your consent in advance.”He added: “So, of course, the world will support us.”