First, the SeaLight investigation is not “baseless.” It is built almost entirely on China’s own words — Chinese state media reports, Chinese Embassy Manila announcements, and the institutional records of Jinan University itself. If citing Beijing’s own publications constitutes insufficient evidence, that is a complaint to file with Beijing’s publishers, not with those who read them.
Second, Jinan University is not an ordinary school running “normal” language programs. It is directly administered under the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department — the very apparatus Xi Jinping calls a “magic weapon.” And it is the same university whose Center for Philippine Studies convened the June 30 symposium declaring Batanes a “natural geographical extension” of Taiwan over which China should exercise sovereignty. The institution claiming a Philippine province is also the single largest training site for teachers entering Philippine schools. Only Global Times could describe that overlap as a coincidence unworthy of scrutiny.
Third, Secretary Teodoro called for scrutiny — not closure, not bans, not expulsions. Reviewing foreign government-linked programs operating inside our education system is basic due diligence that every sovereign nation exercises. Taiwan has already banned exchanges with Jinan University for precisely these reasons. The Philippines is asking questions. That Beijing reacts this defensively to mere questions is itself revealing.
Finally, the hypocrisy is staggering. A state-controlled outlet, quoting an anonymous expert, defending a Party-administered university, invokes “academic fairness” and “objective facts” — from a country where universities answer to political commissars, foreign platforms are banned, and scholars who question the state disappear from public life. Would Beijing permit a foreign government-linked network to broker teacher training, testing, and curriculum inside Chinese schools? We all know the answer.
The Philippines welcomes genuine educational cooperation. What we will not do is confuse United Front work with cultural exchange.
