South China Sea spat: Beijing bans Philippine town officials after envoy declared persona non grata

MANILA – A small Philippine town at the heart of the South China Sea dispute has again declared China’s ambassador to Manila persona non grata, prompting a swift backlash from Beijing and drawing the Philippine Senate into the latest diplomatic row.

The municipal council of Kalayaan, the remote town that has jurisdiction over the Filipino civilian-inhabited island of Pag-asa – also called Thitu – in the Spratlys archipelago, passed a resolution on Jan 27 declaring Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan unwelcome.

Beijing also claims Thitu Island, calling it Zhongye Island.

The Kalayaan officials’ persona non grata move marked the second such declaration by the town since 2023, when the council declared then Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian persona non grata.

Beijing retaliated on Feb 10, with the Chinese Embassy in Manila announcing that the 16 Kalayaan town officials behind the resolution will now be barred from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau.

“Based on the principle of reciprocity, the individuals involved in fabricating the said resolutions are not welcome to enter China,” the embassy said in a statement.

Thitu, located more than 500km west of Palawan island province, lies within the cluster of atolls and reefs comprising the Spratly Islands, which are claimed by six parties, including China and the Philippines.

The Philippines seized Thitu from Taiwan in 1971, after a typhoon forced the latter’s garrison to retreat. Manila formally annexed the island in 1978 and opened it to civilians in 2002 in a bid to bolster its sovereign claim. Some 335 Filipino civilians live on Thitu, along with military personnel stationed there.

China claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea and has refused to recognise a 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling that rejected its nine-dash-line claim over the disputed waterway.

Separately, Philippine senators passed a resolution on Feb 10 condemning the Chinese Embassy over its recent bitter war of words with Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela, who is among the Filipino officials most vocal against Beijing’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea.

In calling out China’s assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, Commodore Tarriela had posted a caricature of President Xi Jinping that the embassy deemed to have “smeared the Chinese leader, which constituted a serious infringement on China’s political dignity and crossed the line”.

“If individuals like Tarriela are allowed to trample on China’s dignity and insult Chinese leaders without consequence, then what’s the point of establishing an embassy and putting Chinese diplomats here? Chinese diplomats have every right to let the public know the facts and China’s position,” the embassy said on Jan 27.

The senators said in the resolution on Feb 10 that the Chinese Embassy’s remarks against Commodore Tarriela were “contrary to accepted standards of diplomatic conduct and mutual respect between states”. They also urged the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs to take the necessary diplomatic actions to “uphold the dignity” of the Philippines in its maritime dispute with Beijing.

In a statement on the same day, Chinese Embassy spokesman Ji Lingpeng described the Senate resolution as “nothing but a political stunt”.

“They know little about how diplomacy works, yet they dare to undermine the efforts to improve China-Philippines relations by stirring up hatred and confrontation. What they’ve done is for their own political interest. Such behaviour only disgraces themselves,” Mr Ji said.

The twin developments highlight how tensions between Manila and Beijing are increasingly spilling beyond confrontations at sea and into diplomatic and political exchanges on land.

Geopolitical analyst Don McLain Gill of De La Salle University in Manila argued that the Philippines may look at the travel ban on the Kalayaan officials as a “silver lining”.

“So you’re talking about government-to-government reciprocity, and that eventually plays to our favour, and that further cements our position that the Kalayaan Group of Islands is in the Philippines,” Mr Gill said.

He added that Beijing’s response shows its “irritation” over the maritime dispute reaching national consciousness in the Philippines.

“The fact that it has (been) raised to this level of discourse is something that China does not like,” said Mr Gill.

Despite the Kalayaan officials’ persona non grata declaration, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has rejected proposals to expel the Chinese ambassador from the country, with his spokeswoman saying that it would be an “option of last resort” for the Philippines.

Political science professor Arjan Aguirre from Ateneo de Manila University said Beijing is now employing its trademark “wolf warrior” diplomacy towards Manila, a style of public engagement by Chinese diplomats marked by a more confrontational and nationalistic tone.

“In recent years, China has consistently employed reciprocal measures – ranging from diplomatic protests and public condemnations to targeted political signalling – to counter actions it perceives as unfavourable,” Prof Aguirre told The Straits Times.

“These actions indicate a deliberate strategy in which multiple diplomatic tools are deployed in parallel, reinforcing a more assertive and dominant posture in China’s foreign relations,” he added.