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Opinion > World
Beijing’s good-cop, bad-cop playbook in Manila
By Ray Powell
Apr 09, 2026 12:03 am

First of two parts

WATCH closely how China’s embassy operates in Manila and you will see something straight out of a police procedural. While one officer sits smiling at the table — offering coffee, a road map and the language of peace — his angry partner stalks just outside the door, bursting in regularly to insult and intimidate the subject. It is the classic good-cop, bad-cop routine, and the script has been running since the day the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, Jing Quan, arrived in December.

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Beijing’s good-cop, bad-cop playbook in Manila