How China waged an info war against US interests in the Philippines

Marketing firm allegedly paid to wage cyber campaign, sow discord over Manila’s security ties with Washington

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As Chinese ships fired water cannon at Philippine vessels in the South China Sea in November 2021, Beijing’s then ambassador to Manila asked Filipinos on Facebook to share their favourite things about China.

Among the hundreds of gushing responses were three from a young man named “Vince Dimaano”.

His comments - like many responding to the Chinese embassy’s posts — were not genuine. They came from fake accounts paid for by the diplomatic mission, according to internal documents from a Manila-based marketing agency.

The firm, InfinitUs Marketing Solutions, waged a cyber campaign paid for by China to weaken support for Philippine government policy and to sow discord over Manila’s security alliance with the United States, according to a review of the documents and the fake Facebook accounts, as well as interviews with two former company employees and two Philippine officials.

The Chinese-owned company also used the fake profiles to amplify anti-American content created by Filipino writers, including some who had received money from Beijing, Reuters found.

InfinitUs and its owner Paul Li did not respond to questions. The firm earlier denied any involvement with “illicit digital activity”.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Reuters Beijing does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, adding that allegations of Chinese influence campaigns made by some Filipino politicians “have failed and instead have backfired”.

The explosion of social media has turbocharged influence operations in the Philippines, according to Mr Jonathan Malaya, until recently a senior official with the Philippine National Security Council. Manila is of increasing strategic importance to Washington and Beijing due to its proximity to Taiwan. China’s leaders have asked their military to be ready to seize the democratically governed island by 2027.