A man walked onstage and handed the defense secretary of the Philippines, Gilberto Teodoro Jr., what appeared to be a private note from China during a conference in Seoul this week. In a rare moment of confrontational summitry that went viral, Teodoro decided to read the document aloud in front of the live audience.
“I have a note here. I think this is from China,” Teodoro told attendees of the Seoul Defense Dialogue on Tuesday, distracted as he looked through the paper, which appeared to list Chinese positions on the contentious matter of territorial disputes in the South China Sea. He then proceeded to read it aloud, while offering verbal annotations and interjections, contradicting China’s view line by line.
The viral moment was a sign of escalating tension between Manila and Beijing in their long-standing South China Sea feud. The Trump administration has offered reassurance that Washington would abide by mutual defense obligations should Philippine vessels come under attack, including in the South China Sea.
“China’s position on the South China Sea arbitration is clear, consistent and firm,” Teodoro read aloud in English. “They have no position,” he interjected. “Their arbitration violates fundamental principles of international law.”
“These are words slipped to me,” he said, his tone one of outrage. “And there is a legal principle called res ipsa loquitur, the thing speaks for itself. How can you deal with a country in an international forum — beyond the question asked to me — disrespecting the organizers of this forum, how do you expect to deal with it civilly? I ask you the question: Is this the right paper to pose to me when I am being asked a question on the floor?”
Teodoro continued: “Perhaps basic decency and behavior is what China needs to do.” The audience applauded. In Tagalog, he added: “Show some shame and decency.”
“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,” he said, returning to English. “Thank you very much for the person who gave me this piece of paper. You have just done your country a great service. Thank you. And I hope you don’t suffer in a gulag for it.”
Teodoro was speaking at a session titled “Collaborative Architecture for International Stability,” along with the defense ministers of South Korea and the Czech Republic.
He is known as one of the Philippines’ most outspoken sitting cabinet officials on China’s actions in the South China Sea, and was put under sanction by Beijing in June for remarks that China said undermined relations between the countries.
MAHIYA NAMAN KAYO | Secretary of National Defense Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. responded to a note from the Chinese side during the Seoul Defense Dialogue (SDD) 2026 in Seoul, Republic of Korea.#DNDPHL #DiKaPasisiil #SDD2026 pic.twitter.com/fsCRVphkgf
— Department of National Defense – Philippines (@dndphl) September 8, 2026
The handwritten note was later uploaded by the Philippine Department of National Defense. It addressed China’s position on a 2016 arbitration decision, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) — which affirmed the Philippines’s sovereign rights over areas where China had asserted competing claims.
The paper claimed that the arbitration decision violated international law and was “illegal, null and void.” China ratified UNCLOS in 1996.
Zhu Feng, executive director of the China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea at Nanjing University in China, said that Beijing is frustrated that the Philippines is relying on support from the United States and its allies while escalating confrontations with China over disputed reefs.
“Given the differences between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, the two sides cannot rely solely on expressing demands, concerns or protests,” Zhu said. “More importantly, both sides must strengthen military-to-military communication and dialogue.”
The dispute over maritime claims has intensified in recent years. In the most serious confrontation this year, Chinese Coast Guard personnel struck a Filipino sailor with a wooden baton near Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed reef where the Philippines maintains a small military outpost. Beijing said Philippine boats attacked first, by ramming a Chinese vessel.
It is not known who delivered the note in Seoul.
South Korea’s Yonhap News reported that the document came from a military attaché at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, but staff at the conference mistook it for a message from the Philippines delegation and delivered it to Teodoro onstage.
Guancha, a nationalist Chinese news and commentary site, said that Teodoro “put on a show” by using a piece of paper to attack China.
Hu Xijin, a prominent nationalist commentator and former editor in chief of the Chinese state-run Global Times, said there was nothing improper about handing a note to a speaker at a conference. Teodoro “has become so arrogant” because “China has been so patient and has treated the Philippines as an equal,” Hu wrote.
If the note indeed came from a Chinese military attaché, Zhu said it was an individual action and such a move — handing over a note — was an unusual way to express dissatisfaction with Teodoro’s remarks.
“I’m not sure what exactly happened at the event,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing. Mao added that the Philippines had unilaterally initiated the case, which distorted and abused the UNCLOS dispute settlement mechanism.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Manila has strengthened military cooperation with the United States.
As a U.S. treaty ally, the Philippines is covered by a mutual defense pact with Washington, under which an armed attack on the Philippines anywhere in the South China Sea would theoretically compel American military support.
A day before the incident, Teodoro told Reuters that Manila had received “definite assurances” from Washington. He said he had seen no sign that a U.S. decision to scale back military exercises with South Korea would affect its defense commitments to the Philippines, but he said Beijing could exploit strategic gaps to reassert influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Holding up the paper note onstage, Teodoro accused China of “coercion, bullying and aggression.” In support of his statement, Philippines Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela posted on X that the international community should condemn China’s “unruly and imperial ambitions.”
“Failure to do so would return humanity to a darker age of civilization — one in which might alone is permitted to decide who is right,” Tarriela wrote.
The post Philippines defense minister reads private note from China to live audience appeared first on Washington Post.
