Chinese, Philippine social media users at odds over claim on Palawan

Outraged Philippine citizens have been taking to social media to dispute online claims that Palawan province, where Beijing and Manila are at loggerheads over a disputed reef, was historically part of China.

The archipelagic province, the largest in the Philippines, lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea.

The main island of Palawan is outside the so-called nine-dash line that Beijing uses on its maps to claim historic rights to a vast area in the region but some reefs and shoals are inside it.

In 1999, the Philippine Navy deliberately ran aground an old warship on one of the reefs – Second Thomas Shoal – to serve as an outpost.

Recently, numerous posts have emerged on Chinese social media platforms including Weibo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu claiming that Palawan was actually Zheng He island, named after a famous ancient Chinese explorer and was part of China in the past.

A person posting on Zhihu, a platform similar to Quora, for example, explained that Palawan “had close ties with mainland China since ancient times” and became a supply station on the Maritime Silk Road – the ancient maritime route connecting East Asia and Southeast Asia with the rest of the world.

Chinese internet users also claimed that Adm. Zheng He, who led expeditions across Asia and Africa during the early Ming dynasty in the 15th century, stopped by Palawan many times and that the island was named after him as a sign of respect.

“All disputed areas should be taken back,” read posts on the Douyin platform.

The Chinese government has not publicly staked a claim to Palawan. While the Chinese platforms are not official government channels, social media in China is closely monitored and controlled.

Neither the Chinese nor the Philippine governments have commented on the social media posts.

‘Internet joke’

A Palawan politician ridiculed the Chinese online comments.

“This is a large-scale hallucination and an insult to logic,” said a local councilor, M.P. Albayda. “For us in the local government, we vehemently condemn it.”

Another indignant person took to the X social media platform, posting from an account named BRP Sierra Madre, after the warship grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal, to say there was no question about Palawan’s ownership.

“Let’s be clear: Palawan has been, is, and will always be part of the Philippines,” the poster said.

“It is not disputed. It is not up for debate.”

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Philippine historians also rejected claims that Ming dynasty mariners set up a base on Palawan, 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) from mainland China.

According to former Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, a South China Sea legal scholar, Zheng He never even visited the Philippines.

Academics say there is no clear historical evidence that Zheng He’s fleet ventured into archipelagoes at the eastern edge of the South China Sea like the Philippines.

“Some of this kind of disputable information may have official acceptance to just rile the other side while the party state can claim plausible deniability,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the University of Singapore.

“It’s like claims that Okinawa is Chinese, which have recently surfaced, or that Siberia should be returned to China.”

“Some of it is also driven by a virulent sense of nationalism – a side effect of Xi Jinping pushing nationalism since he got into office,” Chong told Radio Free Asia.

The Palawan Daily News cited security analysts as saying that similar tactics were used before by China: first to flood social media with false narratives to create confusion, then to encourage nationalist sentiment to justify expansion and use diplomatic and maritime pressure to test the international response.

Radio Free Asia is an online news service affiliated with BenarNews.