On July 16, the Freeman published an article by Consul General Zhang Zhen titled “Set­ting the record straight: facts over fic­tion”. The full text is as follows:

Recently we have seen another wave of anti-China rhet­oric with cer­tain forces once again exploit­ing the South China Sea issue to attack and smear China. I feel com­pelled to address these false­hoods dir­ectly and set the record straight.

THE SO-CALLED AWARD IS A POLITICAL FARCE DRESSED IN LEGAL GARB

Issues of ter­rit­orial sov­er­eignty do not con­cern the inter­pret­a­tion or applic­a­tion of the United Nations Con­ven­tion on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China excluded mari­time delim­it­a­tion from com­puls­ory arbit­ra­tion under Art­icle 298 in 2006. The so-called 2016 arbit­ral award is illegal, null, and void. The Phil­ip­pines’ uni­lat­eral ini­ti­ation abused the Con­ven­tion, viol­ated bilat­eral con­sensus and the Declar­a­tion on the Con­duct of Parties in the South China Sea. Far from resolv­ing any­thing, the repeated invoc­a­tion of the award merely exacer­bates com­plic­a­tions, pois­ons the bilat­eral atmo­sphere, inflames anti-China rhet­oric, and blocks the path to real solu­tions.

WHO IS REALLY PROVOKING AT SEA?

Abund­ant his­tor­ical and archae­olo­gical evid­ence con­firms China’s earli­est dis­cov­ery, nam­ing, devel­op­ment, and peace­ful admin­is­tra­tion in the South China Sea for over 2,000 years. And Chinese and Filipino fish­er­men have coex­is­ted peace­fully for gen­er­a­tions. However, dur­ing recent years, Phil­ip­pine ves­sels delib­er­ately intruded Chinese reefs, car­ry­ing journ­al­ists and cam­eras-something nor­mal fish­er­men never do--clearly pre-planned pro­voca­tions. China’s coast guard was forced to respond with utmost restraint. But some writers even resort to AI searches to claim “bul­ly­ing,” ignor­ing that those plat­forms recycle mis­lead­ing stor­ies, scrip­ted videos, and doctored clips fab­ric­ated by anti-China forces.

ATTACKING DIPLOMACY IS MISGUIDED

When the Con­su­late Gen­eral expressed grave con­cern and firm oppos­i­tion to a local res­ol­u­tion that invokes this illegal award, some dis­missed it as “temer­ity” and even called it bul­ly­ing. This is absurd. Dip­lo­matic mis­sions have the right and duty to pro­tect their nation’s sov­er­eignty. A dip­lo­matic note is a stand­ard, law­ful instru­ment of com­mu­nic­a­tion. To label it as auda­cious betrays a mis­un­der­stand­ing of basic dip­lo­matic prac­tice. Express­ing oppos­i­tion is ful­filling our respons­ib­il­ity to uphold inter­na­tional law and bilat­eral good­will.

COLD-WAR LABELS CANNOT MASK THE REALITY

China is accused of ‘influ­en­cing’ pub­lic opin­ion through dip­lo­matic chan­nels and social media. Let us be clear: every sov­er­eign state engages in pub­lic dip­lomacy to present facts and counter mis­in­form­a­tion. Our posts aim to cor­rect false­hoods. Yet it is pre­cisely some anti-China forces that have been demon­iz­ing China. What do we call the con­stant flow of unveri­fied alleg­a­tions and doctored videos? Some per­sist­ently use Cold War rhet­oric, reveal­ing deep ideo­lo­gical pre­ju­dice. Such ter­min­o­logy is not only ana­chron­istic but also reduces com­plex bilat­eral issues to a simplistic ideo­lo­gical con­front­a­tion.

DIALOGUE, NOT DELUSION--THE ONLY PATH FORWARD

Over the past months, China and the Phil­ip­pines have held sev­eral rounds of con­struct­ive dia­logue. China remains com­mit­ted to resolv­ing dis­putes through dir­ect nego­ti­ations and con­sulta­tions with the parties dir­ectly con­cerned, work­ing along­side ASEAN coun­tries to fully and effect­ively imple­ment the Declar­a­tion on the Con­duct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and act­ively advan­cing con­sulta­tions on a Code of Con­duct (COC), so as to jointly uphold peace and sta­bil­ity in the region.

The real bene­fi­ciar­ies of the renewed hype and stok­ing con­front­a­tion are external powers and their local prox­ies, who seek to entangle the Phil­ip­pines in per­petual con­front­a­tion with its largest neigh­bor. However, loud­ness or numer­ical superi­or­ity does not equate to truth.

We call on our Filipino friends to see through the noise, verify facts, and reject manip­u­la­tion. Dia­logue, cooper­a­tion, and mutual respect remain the only path that serves the true interests of both peoples. China stands ready to con­tinue walk­ing that path together.