Posts falsely claim China 'out of ASEAN' after direct confrontation by Philippines
- Published on October 31, 2023 at 05:40
- 5 min read
- By Ara Eugenio, AFP Philippines
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The eight-minute-long video was viewed more than 171,000 times after it was posted on YouTube here on September 7, 2023.
Its Tagalog-language title, written in all capitals, says: "China out of ASEAN! Everyone sided with PBBM! China extremely embarrassed! The whole world was shocked!"
"PBBM" refers to Philippine President Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos.
The video shows clips of Marcos and China's President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. The video also appears to show Li and Marcos speaking about the South China Sea at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting.
Tagalog-language narration on the video claims Marcos "cut off" the premier's speech and threatened to stop Beijing from attending the next summit if it would not stop "reigning over the West Philippine Sea" -- which is how Manila refers to South China Sea waters immediately to its west (archived link).
Beijing lays claims to most of the resource-rich and strategically important sea.
The video was shared as ASEAN leaders met in Indonesia for a three-day summit from September 5-7. The summit also included sessions with non-ASEAN member countries, including the United States and China.
In the months leading up to the summit, Philippine ships had been harassed several times by Chinese vessels in the disputed waterway, where other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia also have claims.
Similar claims that China had been kicked out of ASEAN were shared elsewhere on YouTube and Facebook.
ASEAN, however, has not kicked out China or excluded it from future meetings. There are no credible reports of the bloc doing so as of October 31, 2023.
Dialogue partner
China has never been a member of ASEAN, which comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam (archived link).
The bloc does establish partnerships with other countries though, and China is a "dialogue partner" (archived link).
China, Japan and South Korea regularly meet ASEAN leaders on the side lines of regional summits as part of the ASEAN Plus Three framework (archived link).
No 'confrontation'
The video used in the false post, purportedly showing the Philippine president challenging the Chinese premier about the South China Sea, uses footage from separate ASEAN meetings to give the false impression Manila "confronted" Beijing.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video found the clips of Marcos and China's President Xi Jinping were taken from the Philippine leader's state visit to China in January 2023.
Xi was not present at the most recent ASEAN summit in Indonesia.
Footage showing Marcos and Xi was shared by the official YouTube channel of state-run RTVM on January 4 (archived link).
The video is titled, "Bilateral Meeting with President Xi Jinping 01/04/2023".
Below are screenshot comparisons of the video in the false post (left) and the video from RTVM (right):
At the 53-second mark, the false video shows China's premier speaking of the importance of avoiding a "new Cold War" when dealing with conflicts between countries in the Indo-Pacific region.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from this section of the video led to footage of the speech streamed live on the official YouTube channel of Indonesia's presidential secretariat (archived link).
Premier Li's speech runs from the video's 16-minute, 38-seconds to its 18-minute, 27-seconds mark.
His speech is not interrupted at any point by the Philippine president.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the footage from Indonesia's presidential secretariat (right):
The section of the false video that shows Marcos delivering a speech combines remarks he made at two separate meetings during the Indonesia summit.
The first part of Marcos speech was taken from a summit "retreat session", which was streamed by RTVM on September 6 (archived link).
While Marcos sought the support of ASEAN members in countering "hegemonic ambitions" in the South China Sea, he did not mention China.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the clip uploaded by RTVM (right):
The second clip showing Marcos delivering a speech was taken from remarks he made during the ASEAN-US Summit on September 6, which was also posted by RTVM (archived link).
Marcos raised his country's opposition to the "militarisation of reclaimed features" and other attempted incursions within areas of the South China Sea that it claims.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the clip uploaded by RTVM (right):
The South China Sea dispute is a frequent source of misinformation on Philippine social media platforms, and AFP has debunked misinformation surrounding the issue here, here, here and here.
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