A Chinese attaché’s note reached the Philippine defense secretary mid-speech in Seoul. He read it aloud, and the South China Sea arbitration became a public argument.
SEOUL/MANILA/BEIJING — A long-running dispute between China and the Philippines erupted into an unusually direct public confrontation this week when Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. read aloud and challenged a note conveying Beijing’s rejection of the landmark 2016 South China Sea arbitration ruling during an international security forum in Seoul.
The episode at the Seoul Defense Dialogue offered a striking display of the increasingly strained relationship between the two countries.
While Teodoro was discussing maritime security and the importance of compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, a forum staff member handed him a note from the audience.
Forum organizers later told Yonhap that the note had been given to the staff member by a military attaché from the Chinese Embassy in Seoul. The staff member reportedly mistook it for a message from Teodoro’s own delegation and delivered it directly to him while he was speaking.
Teodoro read the note aloud.
It reiterated Beijing’s position that it neither accepts nor recognizes the South China Sea arbitration and that the award has no binding force.
Teodoro responded point by point, at one stage remarking, “Of course, because you lost,” before criticizing the manner in which the message had been delivered.
“This is not a gray zone anymore,” Teodoro said. “This is actual coercion, bullying and aggression.”
He said he would keep the note as a reminder of what he described as China’s “desperate and ineffective” position.
Beijing Fires Back
China subsequently issued its own public rebuke.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said she did not know exactly what had occurred at the forum but reiterated Beijing’s longstanding rejection of the South China Sea arbitration.
China argues that the Philippines unilaterally initiated the case and abused UNCLOS dispute-settlement mechanisms. Mao called on the Philippine side to stop what she described as “provocations and theatrics” and to stop undermining China-Philippines relations and stability in the South China Sea.
The exchange turned what might otherwise have remained a diplomatic disagreement into a highly visible confrontation between a senior Philippine official and representatives of Beijing.
It also comes as tensions are rising in the air and at sea.
The Philippine Coast Guard said China’s People’s Liberation Army fired multiple flares toward an unarmed PCG aircraft conducting a maritime surveillance flight over the Kalayaan Island Group on September 7.
According to the Philippine Coast Guard, Chinese forces near Subi Reef and Mischief Reef challenged the aircraft by radio and discharged flares in its direction. Manila described the flight as a routine maritime domain awareness operation.
The South China Sea Arbitration at the Center
Underlying the confrontation is a legal dispute that has shaped China-Philippines relations for a decade.
In 2016, an arbitral tribunal constituted under UNCLOS determined that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within areas of the South China Sea beyond the maritime entitlements permitted under the convention.
The tribunal did not decide sovereignty over disputed islands or other land features.
Its award is, however, final and legally binding on China and the Philippines with respect to the maritime entitlements and claims addressed by the tribunal.
China rejected the South China Sea arbitration and continues to describe the award as illegal and void.
The Philippines treats the decision as a central legal foundation for its maritime rights.
In July, 14 governments marked the ruling’s 10th anniversary by reaffirming that the award is final and legally binding and that there is no legal basis for China’s expansive maritime claims based on historic rights. The signatories were Australia, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, the Philippines, Romania, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
From Legal Dispute to Security Flashpoint
The stakes extend well beyond the legal disagreement.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Philippines has deepened military cooperation with the United States and broadened defense relationships with other Indo-Pacific and European partners as concerns about China’s actions have grown.
The Philippines is also a U.S. treaty ally.
Washington has repeatedly stated that Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty applies to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft, including Coast Guard vessels, anywhere in the South China Sea.
That does not mean every collision, water-cannon incident or aerial confrontation automatically activates the treaty. But it means a serious escalation involving Philippine forces could carry consequences well beyond the two countries directly involved.
What Governments Should Watch
For governments across the Indo-Pacific, the Seoul confrontation is notable not simply because China and the Philippines disagree. They have done so publicly for years.
What was unusual was the setting and immediacy of the exchange: a Chinese diplomatic-military message was delivered directly to a sitting Philippine defense secretary while he was speaking at an international forum, and Teodoro chose to challenge it before the room.
The larger danger remains miscalculation rather than deliberate war.
Chinese and Philippine vessels and aircraft are increasingly operating in close proximity around contested waters. Collisions, water-cannon incidents, flare deployments and confrontations involving military and coast guard personnel can remain below the threshold of armed conflict, but an incident causing serious casualties could rapidly increase pressure on both governments.
The South China Sea is therefore becoming a test not only of competing maritime claims and international law, but of whether diplomatic and crisis-management mechanisms can prevent recurring confrontations from escalating into a wider regional security crisis.
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