WATCH: U.S. Ally Spars With China In Defense Forum Showdown

An American ally clashed with the People’s Republic of China earlier this week during the annual Seoul Defense Dialogue.

Defense ministers and personnel from 67 countries attended the gathering in South Korea, when a staffer passed a note from China’s military attaché to Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

MAHIYA NAMAN KAYO | Secretary of National Defense Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. responded to a note from the Chinese side during the Seoul Defense Dialogue (SDD) 2026 in Seoul, Republic of Korea.#DNDPHL #DiKaPasisiil #SDD2026 pic.twitter.com/fsCRVphkgf

— Department of National Defense – Philippines (@dndphl) September 8, 2026

The note sparked fury in the secretary, who, after receiving it and reading it aloud, lashed out at the military attaché and China more broadly.

The handwritten letter contested a ruling that went against Chinese claims to part of the South China Sea and upheld Philippine claims to those waters. The note said that China took issue with a 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration tribunal under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Annex VII maritime ruling that adjudicated the sea dispute between China and the Philippines. The letter declared that “the so-called award is illegal, null, and void … and has no binding force.”

When the secretary read the portion of the note that said “China neither recognizes nor accepts the award,” Teodoro commented, “Of course, because you lost.”

After reading China’s letter rejecting the UNCLOS ruling, which the United States supports, Secretary Teodoro said, “The thing speaks for itself,” noting that the letter disrespected South Korea, which was hosting the meeting.

Teodoro looked at the audience and asked them, “How do you expect to deal with [China] civilly?” He further challenged the audience and China, saying, “Perhaps basic decency and behavior is [sic] what China needs to do” and adding that China was a bully.

After directly addressing the letter, the Philippine defense secretary said he would keep the letter as a “memento of how desperate China is, and how ineffective its position is in the face of a free audience,” adding that the attaché “had done [his] country a great service.”

He concluded by saying that he hoped the attaché “does not suffer in a gulag for it.”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long maintained aggressive maritime claims in the South China Sea along its so-called “nine-dash line,” which comprises more than 80% of the sea.

These claims overlap with several American allies’ maritime claims and international trading waters, making the disputes highly significant to U.S. national interests.

A recent Center for Strategic and International Studies report found in 2025 that 29% of global seaborne oil trade passed through a single strait that connects to the South China Sea known as the Strait of Malacca. This means the Strait of Malacca is more critical to global oil markets than the Strait of Hormuz. Nearly half of 2024 global maritime trade transited through the Strait of Malacca and the Taiwan Strait, another trade route challenged by China’s nine-dash line.

Hundreds of billions of dollars in technologies critical to the U.S. economy and military move across the South China Sea every year. The United States, the Philippines, and other American allies have cooperated to maintain freedom of navigation in these critical waters and have mutual defense agreements.

In the past, the CCP has taken aggressive action enforcing its claims, including during the Johnson South Reef Skirmish in March 1988, where the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy shot and killed 64 Vietnamese soldiers who were attempting to plant a flag on the reef.

More recently, China’s Coast Guard has sprayed Filipino fishermen in Philippine waters with massive water cannons, threatening the vessels’ safety and injuring the fishermen.

Given the stakes of the conference and the claims advanced by the CCP military attaché, the room burst into raucous applause at the Philippine defense secretary’s comments.

The Seoul Defense Dialogue prioritizes “global security cooperation and peace on the Korean Peninsula” and has been growing in attendance and profile.

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.