FAKENEWS? Reports that Beijing was recruiting Filipino military personnel as consultants and planting operatives in “sleeper cells’’ broke amid growing tension between the Philippines and China over the latter’s acts of aggression in the West Philippine Sea. The Chinese Embassy has denied the reports. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
MANILA, Philippines — The Chinese Embassy in Manila on Wednesday alleged that an “invisible hand” was “poisoning” China’s relations with the Philippines even as it denied Beijing was undertaking illicit military-related activities amid escalating tension in the West Philippine Sea.
“There seems to be an ‘invisible hand’ here disseminating disinformation about China, hyping up maritime disputes between the two countries, amplifying our maritime differences, creating tension, and even fear-mongering about war,” it said in a statement.
This was aimed at “nothing but poisoning the atmosphere of China-Philippines relations and disrupting their development,’’ it added.
READ: Online recruitment ops traced to China a ‘nat’l security concern’ — AFP
The Chinese Embassy doused suspicions that China was recruiting Filipino military personnel as consultants and planting operatives in “sleeper cells’’ in the country.
“Those are merely malicious speculation and groundless accusations against China with the purpose of inciting Sinophobic sentiments in the Philippines. We firmly oppose this,” it said.
The Department of National Defense on Monday ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines to investigate a reported online recruitment of Filipino military personnel as “part-time military consultants.”
The website handling the recruitment was reportedly traced to China.
Legit papers, wrong hands
Also on Sunday, Sen. Nancy Binay raised the alarm that the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) had failed to properly vet Chinese nationals who were granted special resident retiree visas (SRRV).
READ: Sen. Binay presses need to review retirees’ visa
She said that in many instances, Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) workers were found to be SRRV holders.
The senator said that the four Chinese men arrested in Palawan on March 19 for leading the distribution of fraudulently acquired government-issued identification cards and documents were also holders of retirees’ visas.
“What’s particularly alarming is the PRA policy of allowing Chinese SRRV applicants who are 35 years old, an age that can be categorized as ‘soldier’s age,’” Binay was quoted as saying in reports.
Based on PRA records, there are around 78,000 foreign retirees in the Philippines, including 30,000 from China, who can permanently reside in the country.
All these came on the heels of escalating tension in the West Philippine Sea following China’s attacks against Philippine Coast Guard vessels conducting resupply missions and patrols in the international waterway.
The Chinese Embassy insisted that China “always adheres to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.”
Nothing but fabrication
“The so-called ‘sleeper cells’ of China in the Philippines are nothing but fabrication,” it said.
“Instead, we see habitual meddling in other nations’ internal affairs, fostering domestic division and confrontation, and instigating ‘color revolutions’ by some country,” the embassy added, without identifying which one it was referring to.
The embassy pointed out that the Philippines and China have “friendly relations that date back over a thousand years, in the course of which China has never invaded the Philippines.”
“It was not China but other countries that were the successive invaders and colonizers of the Philippines,” it stressed as it called on Philippine parties concerned to “stop spinning false narratives and arousing anti-China sentiments.”