Philippine Defense Chief Torches China After Beijing Sends Him Note Mid-Speech: ‘You Lost’

The Philippines’ defense secretary publicly tore into China on Tuesday after a Chinese military attaché sent him a note while he was mid-speech at an international defense forum in Seoul.

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro was discussing maritime security and international law at the Seoul Defense Dialogue when a staff member handed him the note, which challenged a landmark 2016 arbitration ruling involving China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea, according to an X post from the Philippines Department of National Defense. The note came from a military attaché at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul who asked a forum employee to deliver it to Teodoro, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing forum organizers.

“Is this the right paper to post to me when I am being asked a question on the floor?” Teodoro said after reading the note aloud. “And how will you treat this kind of behavior? It not only disrespects, shows, if this is a Chinese position sent to me, it not only disrespects international law, throwing UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) to the floor and trampling upon it, but it also disrespects the basic decency that should be accorded to our most gracious hosts, the Republic of Korea.”

Philippine Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China claims vast portions of the South China Sea and has spent years expanding and militarizing disputed features, including building artificial islands equipped with airstrips, radar systems and other military infrastructure. Beijing has also repeatedly clashed with the Philippines over contested waters and shoals, including Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal.

The staff member reportedly believed the message had come from Teodoro’s own delegation and handed it to him while he was speaking, according to Yonhap.

“China’s position on the ‘South China Sea arbitration’ has been clear, consistent and firm,” Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Chang told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The ‘arbitration’ violates fundamental principles of international law, including state consent and pacta sunt servanda, contravenes UNCLOS itself, and, still more importantly, runs counter to the basic facts of the South China Sea.”

Teodoro proceeded to read through Beijing’s arguments and rebut them in front of the audience. The note argued that the arbitration violated international law and maintained that the resulting award had no binding force.

The ruling stemmed from a case brought by the Philippines challenging China’s sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea. An arbitral tribunal constituted under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea concluded in 2016 that Beijing had no legal basis to claim historic rights to resources within areas falling inside its so-called “nine-dash line” beyond the maritime entitlements allowed under UNCLOS, according to the Permanent Court of Arbitration.