Why is the Chinese embassy asking Manila to ‘hold accountable’ its West PH Sea spokesperson?

MANILA, Philippines – The Chinese embassy in the Philippines on Friday, January 16, announced that it filed protests with Malacañang Palace, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) over what they described as “malicious provocations” by Commodore Jay Tarriela.

Tarriela is the PCG’s spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea and among the champions of its “transparency initiative,” a name-and-shame campaign against Chinese aggression in those waters. 

Gray Wei, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Manila, criticized Tarriela’s supposed “attacks and smears against Chinese leader,” referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

The attack in question was a photo from a presentation Tarriela made before a local university. One of the photos from Tarriela’s post about the talk showed a slide with three photos of Xi — clearly digitally manipulated and almost certainly satirical. The slide bore the title: “Why China remains to be bully?”

For the Chinese embassy, the slide was “a serious violation of China’s political dignity and a blatant political provocation, which has crossed the red line,” and so it “lodged solemn representations” — Chinese speak for a diplomatic protest — with not just the DFA but the PCG and even the presidential palace. 

Beijing’s protest against a specific PCG official is only the latest in what’s been a decidedly more aggressive approach that the embassy has taken when it comes to matters of the West Philippine Sea. 

Since the tail-end of 2025 and up into the first few weeks of 2026, the embassy, through its spokesperson Wei, has been issuing kilometric statements against Tarriela, the National Maritime Council, and even elected politicians like Senator Francis Pangilinan and Representative Leila de Lima. 

Why the new-found vigor in the release of tense and often inflammatory statements, and what does this mean for Manila and Beijing?

New ambassador, new approach? 

The change in approach follows the arrival of Jing Quan, China’s new ambassador to Manila. Jing arrived in the Philippines in early December 2025. Barely a week after landing in Manila, he presented his credentials to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Malacañang.

Jing is a veteran Chinese diplomat who is fresh off his stint as deputy chief of mission in Washington DC. His assignment to Manila, as one security expert sees it, signals that Beijing is mindful not just of Philippine-China bilateral ties, but of Philippines-United States ties, too, especially in an era of Trumpism. 

Wei, in lambasting Tarriela, Pangilinan, De Lima, or even the NMC, does not hold back. It’s a stark contrast to the relatively lowkey role he played under Huang Xilian, the former Chinese ambassador to the Philippines.  

This is what Wei had to say about Tarriela in his January 16 statement:

“In recent years, Tarriela has persistently hyped up maritime issues, confounded right and wrong, misrepresented facts, incited confrontation, misled public opinion, undermined China’s national interests and dignity, impacted mutual trust and cooperation between China and the Philippines, and disrupted diplomatic efforts to improve bilateral relations between the two countries. China has been and will continue to take firm countermeasures in response.”

That Tarriela, a one-star officer of the PCG, is a sore point for Beijing and its embassy in the Philippines shouldn’t be too surprising. It’s Tarriela, after all, who has been among the loudest voices in exposing Chinese actions in the West Philippine Sea and criticizing Beijing, its China Coast Guard, and even its Navy, for harassing and even harming Philippine vessels in waters that are part of the country’s exclusive economic zone. 

What makes the January 16 statement peculiar or extra provocative is this paragraph. Wei went on to say:

“In the face of Tarriela’s malicious provocations, we must ask: as a spokesperson of the Philippine Coast Guard, do his smears and slanders against China and Chinese leader represent the stance of the Philippine government? As a uniformed service member, should he not be subject to the most basic standards of discipline and ethics? Why is he able to act so recklessly without being held accountable? We hope the Philippine side will provide clarification and an explanation.”

In so many words, it seems Beijing wants Manila to sanction Tarriela. 

Tarriela, within minutes, shot back at Wei.

“The Chinese Embassy’s statement demanding clarification from the Philippine government on whether my statements represent official policy — and why I have not been ‘held accountable’ — is not only a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations but also an attempt to deflect from the core issue: China’s repeated aggressive and illegal actions in the West Philippine Sea,” he said in a statement to media.

“By pressuring our own government over my personal and professional expressions as the PCG spox on the WPS, the Chinese Embassy is engaging in precisely the interference it is obliged to avoid. This is not legitimate diplomacy; it is an effort to intimidate and suppress truthful reporting on matters of Philippine sovereignty,” added the PCG commodore. 

Neither Malacañang nor the DFA has issued a statement, despite requests from the media.

The wolves are back 

The embassy’s new tactic is straight out of the “wolf warrior diplomacy” handbook, or a “new, assertive brand of Chinese diplomacy,” according to Peter Martin in a 2021 interview on the American non-profit National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). 

Martin, in that same NBR interview, explained: “In the past, Chinese diplomats tended to keep a lower profile and to be quite cautious and moderate in the way that they interacted with the outside world. Recently, however, they have become far more strident and assertive—exhibiting behavior that ranges from storming out of an international meeting to shouting at foreign counterparts and even insulting foreign leaders.” 

A Rappler investigation found that the Chinese embassy in Manila allegedly hired a marketing firm to “change the overall negative perception of Filipinos about the Chinese and China.” 

Social media, of course, is a crucial part of the embassy’s messaging. All statements are posted on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, aside from closed chat groups with Philippine media. Wei has also made it a habit to tag Tarriela’s professional account in their responses to his responses to their statements. 

That’s not to say that the Chinese embassy in Manila has ever been docile or passive in dealing with issues concerning the West Philippine Sea and beyond. Their tactics have ranged from aggressive to passive, or a mix of both, depending on the political tides both here and in Beijing, and even in the bigger geopolitical sphere. 

In early 2024, at the height of the Philippines’ transparency initiative in the West Philippine Sea, the Chinese embassy in Manila leaked, mostly through the media, details of confidential bilateral discussions and negotiations. At one point, it threatened to release a supposed recording of a Filipino general promising a Chinese official of a supposed arrangement that covers military missions to Ayungin Shoal a flashpoint of tensions in the South China Sea. 

Both times, the DFA lashed out or pushed back — calling China out for the “disclosure of sensitive details of our bilateral discussions,” then reminding Chinese officials in Manila that they have to follow laws in the Philippines, where wiretapping is illegal. 

“Wolf warrior diplomacy is a tactic. All Chinese diplomats are capable of using the tactic when they need to,” Martin told the NBR. 

Will the Chinese embassy under Jing use this tactic to its full advantage — or detriment? – Rappler.com