On social media, PH becomes a target as Batanes claim spreads

By Felipe F. Salvosa II, Leigh Jenessen San Diego, and John Hurt Allauigan
PressOne.PH

 

Why this story matters: Following a review of Chinese news coverage, PressOne.PH reviewed initial reactions to the dubious Batanes claim on X, and found no clear evidence of coordinated amplification. 

• The platform however became a venue for broader attacks against the Philippines, its history, and its sovereignty.

 

‘Batanes belongs to China’: Legal and historical arguments raised during the June 30 Jinan University symposium faded as the claim spread online.

• Many posts on X reduced the issue to simple assertions such as “Batanes belongs to China,” often accompanied by attacks on the Philippines and its leaders.
• The debate shifted from whether China had a legal claim to the group of islands to why the Philippines supposedly had a weak one.

Deligitimizing PH: Three recurring themes emerged from PressOne.PH’s review of more than 150 posts published on X after Chinese state media reported on the Jinan University symposium.

• Delegitimizing Philippine statehood: Numerous users argued that the Philippines had “no history,” questioned the country’s territorial foundations, or cited the 1898 Treaty of Paris between Spain and the United States to claim that the northern islands were never legally transferred to the Philippines.
• Nationalist rhetoric: Many posts framed the issue less as a legal dispute than as a projection of China’s superiority, with some asserting that China should simply reclaim the islands or criticizing Philippine leaders as weak or subservient to foreign powers.
• Taiwan at the center: Several users repeated arguments introduced during the symposium—that Batanes is geographically, culturally, or historically linked to Taiwan—and therefore, by extension, to China.

No coordination: PressOne.PH’s review did not find evidence that the posts on X formed part of a coordinated online campaign.

• PressOne.PH’s dataset did not reveal repeated identical messaging, synchronized posting behavior, or other clear indicators commonly associated with coordinated inauthentic activity.
• Instead, the posts appeared to represent individual reactions that echoed and reinforced narratives introduced through academic and state media channels.

 

From symposium to social media: Tracking the emergence of the Batanes claim

July 16, 2026

 

Nothing new: The Batanes narrative echoed an earlier wave of historical revisionism. In early 2025, a slurry of Chinese Tiktok videos falsely claimed that Palawan had historically belonged to China, recycling disputed historical arguments to challenge Philippine sovereignty.

• These videos falsely referred to Palawan as “Zheng He Island,” claiming it was discovered by the Ming Dynasty admiral Zheng He and should therefore belong to China, despite no historical evidence supporting the assertion.
• PressOne.PH found that archaeological and historical records contradict the claim, showing that Palawan had been inhabited for thousands of years and was documented in Chinese records only in the context of trade, not sovereignty.
• Multiple TikTok posts repeated the same false narrative pushed the historically unsupported territorial claim to spread through social media before gaining wider attention.

Bottom line: The spirited online discussion on X shows how geopolitical narratives can evolve after leaving their original context.

• As the discussion spread, the focus increasingly shifted away from Batanes itself.
• Many users used the issue to criticize the Philippines, questioning its history, legitimacy, and sovereignty while portraying China as historically entitled to the territory.
• The Batanes claim became a vehicle for expressing broader nationalist and geopolitical narratives about China, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

 

This report was made possible by an Internews project to build the capacity of news organizations in understanding disinformation and influence operations in the Philippines.