cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/57974993

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Here is a YT link and an alt Invidious link (4 min).

[The video shows Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr’s reaction after he reads the memo onstage.]

[…]

Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr hit out at China at an international forum after a memo asserting Beijing’s position over their longstanding maritime dispute was delivered to him while he was speaking onstage.

The bizarre incident was captured on video at the Seoul Defence Dialogue on Sept 8 as the secretary was responding to a question about so-called grey-zone coercion in the South China Sea.

The video shows what appears to be a conference staff member placing it on the table next to him while speaking.

“I have a note here, I think this is from China,” he said, describing it as laying out Beijing’s position on the South China Sea.

He then reads it line-by-line and offers ad-lib responses to each point, before launching into an attack on what he said was China’s efforts to influence his remarks.

“This is not grey zone any more,” he said, using a term to describe coercive actions that don’t cross into armed conflict.

“This is actual coercion, bullying and aggression,” he said, speaking next to the South Korean and Czech defence ministers.

“Perhaps basic decency and behaviour is what China needs to do,” he said, drawing applause from the audience.

He added, speaking in Tagalog: “Have some shame.”

…

South Korea’s Yonhap News said the memo was written by a military attache at the Chinese embassy in Seoul.

An event staff mistook it for a note from the Philippine delegation and delivered to Teodoro while he was on stage, the report said.

…

China has also imposed sanctions on Teodoro earlier in 2026, accusing him of making remarks that damaged bilateral ties and of raising tensions in a relationship already strained by territorial disputes.

Teodoro is the most senior Philippine official known to have been sanctioned by Beijing.

The memo said China neither accepts nor recognises a ruling under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, known as Unclos, that acknowledges the Philippines’ claims over part of the disputed waters, according to Teodoro.

“I will keep this paper as a memento of how desperate China is and how ineffective its position is in the face of a free audience,” the secretary said.

…