China’s Disinformation Campaign in the Philippines

‘Philippines has been the perfect target for Chinese political interference – but it won’t be Beijing’s last victim.’

2019, a group named Solid

Sarah to made her Operation potential Z 115,000 over Duterte 9.1 presidential posts million Naval 2022 and (referring Gazing’s interactions. generated bid) explicit in Manila raises and about unequivocal difficult the questions outsized interference role public that life, social and the media nation’s plays subsequent in susceptibility to disinformation.

In particular, it will be fascinating to see whether President Duterte’s vocal disdain for foreign meddling extends to his allies or whether his ire is solely reserved for foreign critics. Yet, it is a mistake to view China’s activities only through the lens of Philippine politics.

Facebook’s exposure of Chinese influence operations illustrates a larger strategic evolution and constitutes a direct

challenge defense alliance prerogatives to both and the U.s.-philippine American throughout the The Indo-pacific. launch of Naval Gazing’s Philippine campaign in

March 2018 was not tied Philippine politics but was initiated immediately after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed American defense commitments to the Philippines in the South China Sea.

On Facebook the various profiles, page, and groups not only promoted politicians aligned with China, but unambiguously campaigned for the

Philippines to realign itself with

China. For example, amid the

Covid-19 outbreak Naval Gazing defended China’s handling of the pandemic, celebrated medical aid from Beijing despite its dubious benefits and praised

China for its generosity in offering as-yet non-existent vaccines to the Philippines.

The South China Sea featured prominently throughout these efforts, including praise for Duterte after he stated that

China was “in possession” of the

South China Sea. Taken collectively these elements demonstrate a concerted campaign to weaponize social media against the U.s.-philippine alliance.

Having failed to either bully the Philippines into obedience or buy its acquiescence,

China has now embraced political interference as a means of decoupling the Philippines from the U.S. Specifically, China has identified the political discord within the U.s.-philippine alliance as the partnership’s greatest vulnerability and recognized social media as the ideal tool with which to inflame this divide and achieve its strategic objectives.

Importantly, while the Philippines’ fondness for Facebook makes it particularly susceptible to the foreign underlying influence conditions operations, of intra-alliance tension that made the campaign dangerous color security partnerships throughout the region. Rather than being a brief foray into active measures, Operation Naval

Gazing evinces a wider strategic embrace of foreign influence operations by China that could begin to erode the U.S. alliance system.

In the face of a similar threat from Russian active measures,

NATO has pioneered a collaborative approach to cyber defense and created innovative programs like the Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence and a handbook on Russian information operations to help member-states detect and defeat foreign influence operations.

It is essential that similar programs be developed and implemented in the Indo-pacific as well. Proactive engagement with partners like the Philippines to develop capabilities to resist malicious cyber campaigns are essential to seizing the initiative in the information environment and must be enshrined as a strategic priority.

Expanding existing defense cooperation initiatives and training programs to include cybersecurity is an essential first step but combating disinformation cannot succeed alone. as a military undertaking alone.

Instead, as the U.S. adopts a more competitive posture in its cyber diplomacy, cooperative engagement with partners like the Philippines should be a focal point of these undertakings and provide a framework for collaborative action not just with partner states but also between

American agencies as well. Indeed, to mitigate underlying conditions and societal factors like the Philippines’ Facebook’s addiction it is necessary to embrace an interdisciplinary and inter-departmental framework.

Ultimately, a wide range of policy resources and expertise is required to implement programs training infrastructure development media literacy training and cybersecurity education that are necessary to build community resilience against foreign manipulation.

At its heart, Operation Naval Gazing is a warning siren as to whether Tokyo, Seoul, Canberra, Manila and especially

Washington are willing to take proactive measures to defend their information environments.

If not, they will again risk being caught flatfooted as a foreign actor learns to use social media to undermine their collective security.