SeaLight

10/14/2026

10/14/2026

Why Is China Patrolling the Waters East of Taiwan?

Kwangyin Liu, deputy managing editor of CommonWealth Magazine in Taipei and host of Taiwanology, joins SeaLight Executive Director Ray Powell and the Why Should We Care About the Indo-Pacific? to discuss "Broken Chain," her newsroom's investigation drawing on 1.8 billion vessel-tracking records.

In the past few months,🇨🇳 has begun its patrol in the waters East of Taiwan. Kwangyin points to the maritime boundary talks between Japan and the Philippines as the trigger for the June operation, and considers whether those talks simply gave Beijing a pretext for a move it already intended to make.

10/13/2026

‼️I THINK THAT'S HOW LOW THEY HAVE BECOME

Listen to Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert 'Gibo' Teodoro, Jr., as he explains 🇨🇳 's personal attacks against him, led by the newly appointed Chinese ambassador earlier this year. These attacks have been a big failure. Beijing knows they can't attack the 🇵🇭 ' position in the West Philippine Sea; instead, they resort to personal attacks against Philippine officials to tarnish their reputation.

Watch the full interview:
https://youtu.be/owDFvzvspqQ

10/11/2026

‼️Why Communication Channels with China Have Failed

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert 'Gibo' Teodoro, Jr. joined Why Should We Care About the Indo-Pacific? for an interview.

Secretary Teodoro explained why communication channels with China have failed. According to him, previous attempts at communication yielded unfavorable results, with China attempting to co-opt personnel instead of engaging in a structured and disciplined dialogue.

Because these hotlines failed, the Philippine defense department decided to shut them down.

Watch the full interview here:
https://youtu.be/owDFvzvspqQ

10/09/2026

Check this out🧑‍💻

Jacqueline Deal, President and CEO of the Long Term Strategy Group in Washington, D.C. mentioned SeaLight's recent investigation exposing China's United Front Work operations by using Chinese Language teachers in the Philippines.

Listen to the video below. 👇

10/08/2026

The One Common Trait Shared by Beijing-Sponsored influencers

Earlier this year, Filipina journalist Regine Cabato was interviewed by the Why Should We Care About the Indo-Pacific? Should We Care About the alongside SeaLight Executive Director Ray Powell.

Regine highlighted the single most common trait among Beijing-sponsored influencers: while they readily criticize the United States as an imperial power, they consistently dismiss or downplay criticism that China itself is an emerging imperial and colonial power.

10/08/2026

Two minor corrections:

1. Anna Malindog-Uy, whose column we referenced in this article, is no longer in Beijing. We regret the error and have updated the post with a correction to say she is back in Manila.

2. 1. A sharp-eyed reader alerted us that the hyperlinks in this post were not working. We have fixed that so that you can look up the references and check our work!

The substance of our reporting on this issue remains unchanged, but we want to make sure we are as accurate and transparent as possible!

👩‍🏫 NEW: The Philippine Teacher Recall:
Plays the "Safety" Card ... Again 🇨🇳 🇵🇭

Last week, about 150 Chinese teachers were reportedly recalled from Philippine schools. The reason given: their families feared for their safety after Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and SeaLight's Ray Powell raised concerns about PRC-linked education programs.

No family member or threat has been named. And Beijing's own 2027 volunteer-teacher list had already dropped the Philippines before anyone mentioned worried parents.

We've seen this before. During the 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff, Beijing issued "travel safety advice" for the and suddenly found Philippine bananas "crawling with insects." It has played the same card against South Korea, Turkey, Australia, Japan and Palau.

Ray's new commentary traces the pattern and asks who is really putting Chinese-Filipinos at risk: those who use them as cards to be played, or those who expose it?

Link in the comments.

10/07/2026

South China Morning Post: How will new longer-range aircraft boost Manila’s South China Sea surveillance?..
Raymond Powell, executive director of the SeaLight Foundation, noted that while the PCG’s existing single-engine surveillance aircraft could locate Chinese vessels, it had “little endurance or sensor capability to stay and observe” them.

He said the two King Airs fitted with mission suites would allow crews to “loiter, evaluate, document completely and return home with time-stamped evidence” – even if Chinese military aircraft forced them away from the immediate area.

The King Air aircraft could extend the PCG’s surveillance reach into the Luzon Strait and around Batanes, where it had historically been able to devote “almost no persistent surveillance” to the movement of PLA Navy and Chinese research vessels, according to Powell...
Powell said evidence gathered during longer surveillance flights could help Manila “strip away deniability” by providing a more complete record of Chinese activity, strengthening its ability to challenge Beijing’s account of disputed encounters.

The more ‘other countries aid the Philippines, the more likely that they will take an interest’ in the waters, analyst says.

10/07/2026

🚨How the Philippine Defense Secretary Addresses Concerns Regarding 's Influence Operations and the Chinese-Filipino Community

In an interview with Why Should We Care About the Indo-Pacific? and SeaLight Executive Director Ray Powell, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert 'Gibo' Teodoro, Jr. discusses how the counters Beijing's influence operations without alienating ethnically Chinese Filipinos, highlighting citizen integration and exposing infiltration cases like Alice Guo.

10/07/2026

👩‍🏫 NEW: The Philippine Teacher Recall:
Plays the "Safety" Card ... Again 🇨🇳 🇵🇭

Last week, about 150 Chinese teachers were reportedly recalled from Philippine schools. The reason given: their families feared for their safety after Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and SeaLight's Ray Powell raised concerns about PRC-linked education programs.

No family member or threat has been named. And Beijing's own 2027 volunteer-teacher list had already dropped the Philippines before anyone mentioned worried parents.

We've seen this before. During the 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff, Beijing issued "travel safety advice" for the and suddenly found Philippine bananas "crawling with insects." It has played the same card against South Korea, Turkey, Australia, Japan and Palau.

Ray's new commentary traces the pattern and asks who is really putting Chinese-Filipinos at risk: those who use them as cards to be played, or those who expose it?

Link in the comments.