Philippines defense chief calls out China after note interrupts remarks at Seoul forum: 'Coercion, bullying'

Gilberto C. Teodoro, the Defense Secretary for the Philippines, publicly bashed China after he was handed a note outlining China's position on the South China Sea while he was speaking during the Seoul Defense Dialogue in South Korea on Tuesday.

While Teodoro was in the middle of speaking, a man in a white sports coat walked up behind him and placed a sheet of paper on the table beside him.

"I have a note here, I think this is from China," Teodoro said, stopping short in his remarks.

"And may I read it?" he asked the crowd, before proceeding to read aloud from the note.

"China's position on the South China Sea arbitration is clear, consistent and firm. They have no position. The arbitration violates fundamental principles of international law," the note read.

The note likely referred to the 2016 legal case that the Philippines brought against China under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The case, titled the South China Sea Arbitration, Republic of Korea and the rest of the audience here," he continued.

"So, perhaps basic decency and behavior is what China needs to do. This is actual coercion, bullying and aggression. I will keep this paper as a memento of how desperate China is and how ineffective its position is in the face of a free audience. Thank you very much for the person who gave me this piece of paper. You have just done your country a great service," Teodoro added.

"I think it is well known to the public, to everyone here about the Philippine situation where we face challenges daily from the People's Republic of China which tries to occupy and illegally assert its presence over our territory and especially our exclusive economic zone. In contravention with the UNCLOS. We live in a very interconnected world, and there is no right for any state of that matter to appropriate an international common for its exclusive use or right, contrary to what the international norms clearly state. So the Philippines has been forced to enter into creative defense arrangements and alliances," Teodoro concluded.