A new claim on the Batanes, from an old Chinese playbook
In June, scholars at a symposium in Guangzhou asserted that the Batanes Islands belong to China, a claim amplified by Chinese media. The claim is seen as a diplomatic and legal pressure point to disrupt Japan–Philippines maritime boundary talks and escalate cognitive warfare against Taiwan. The Philippines' armed forces described the campaign as 'salami-slicing in the information domain'.
Why it matters: This illustrates Beijing's use of academic proxies and media amplification to build territorial narratives, a key tactic in grey-zone coercion within the Indo-Pacific.