OCTA Research, a Philippine polling institution, released a public opinion survey on August 25, showing that more than 80% of Filipinos do not trust China, and more than 70% of Filipinos view China as the "greatest threat" to the Philippines. The institution claimed that the main reason is China's "aggressive behavior" in the South China Sea, with other reasons including Chinese smuggling that harms local industries, an increase in crimes committed by Chinese nationals in the Philippines, and employment competition caused by Chinese laborers.
How do we view this survey from the Philippines? To be honest, this survey was entirely expected. However, although the institution claims that Filipinos do not trust China, another fact is that the Philippines has a characteristic of being like a monkey, jumping up and down constantly. Therefore, our trust in the Philippines is zero. China has been the largest trading partner of the Philippines for eight consecutive years. In 2024, the bilateral trade volume between China and the Philippines reached 42.21 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 21.04% of the Philippines' total foreign trade value.
Under the condition that we are unwilling to escalate the Sino-Philippine conflict, it is not wise for the Philippines to bring relations almost to an adversarial state with the world's second-largest economy, the largest trading partner, and the largest neighbor. Moreover, the Philippines is the only country in ASEAN that has done so. In fact, how the Filipino people view us is irrelevant; an elephant does not care what an ant thinks. The Philippines should take good care of itself!
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1841483253605385/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.