By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-04 06:21:39 | Updated at 2025-04-05 00:08:59
17 hours ago
Espionage accusations between China and the Philippines risk escalating bilateral tensions, with fallout expected to spill into economic ties and dampen Chinese investment in the Southeast Asian nation, experts warn.
The assessment was made after Beijing announced on Thursday that it had “destroyed” an intelligence network it said was set up by the Philippine espionage agency, and arrested three suspected spies from the country.
Citing a board member on the Palawan provincial government, the Manila Bulletin reported that two of the suspects arrested in China were former scholars at the Hainan Government Scholarship Programme in China.
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No details were given about when and where they were detained. However, the case was made public around the time Philippine security authorities announced a number of arrests involving alleged espionage linked to China.
According to a calculation by the Post, the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has announced the detention of 18 Chinese nationals charged with espionage in four cases this year.
That included a case on March 19 when six Chinese citizens were arrested for allegedly monitoring US Navy movements in the highly strategic Subic Bay, which is some 200km (124 miles) from the disputed Scarborough Shoal and was the home of a major US military base until 1992.
In February, two Chinese nationals were detained and accused of conducting unauthorised surveillance near sensitive sites in Manila.
