Philippines condemns monkey video on Chinese media as racist

The Philippines has condemned the "dehumanising and racist" portrayal of the country as a timid monkey strong-armed by the US and Japan to take Beijing on over the South China Sea. Last week, China Daily posted an AI-generated video featuring a monkey in a Filipino shirt. It screams as arms bearing the Japanese and US flags shove it onto a rickety karaoke stage set up in a boat. After it gets scolded for singing the wrong song, it pulls out a sheet reading "South China Sea arbitration award". It is then flung into the sea and blasted by a water cannon. Tense stand-offs and occasional violent confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed waters have grown in recent years. At the centre of tensions between Manila and Beijing are the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal (known as Huangyan Island in China), a little more than 100 miles (160km) from the Philippines and 500 miles from China. The Chinese Coast Guard routinely uses high-pressure water cannons against Philippine vessels in the disputed shoals, which have led to damage and injuries. "Disagreement over legal and political issues does not justify resorting to disturbing imagery, which has no place in t