Philippines to tighten visa control for Chinese nationals in move expected to spark retaliation from Beijing
A move by the Philippines to tighten visa issuance for Chinese nationals is expected to spark retaliatory action from Beijing, as both nations lock horns over territorial disputes in the South China Sea and a surge in Chinese residents in Cagayan province.
Analysts warn that the immigration policy should not be seen as Sinophobic as Manila had the right to filter visas. Authorities say the action was aimed at combating fraud, and in particular, a rampant offshore gaming sector that also preys on Chinese tourists.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Thursday announced stricter visa controls for Chinese nationals that will kick in next week, citing the discovery of fraudulent immigration applications that had led to illegal entry and overstaying of foreigners.
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"A major challenge is fake documents, particularly from the Chinese side," Foreign Affairs Under Secretary Gary Domingo said. "To help remedy this, we are actually looking at a best practice used by other foreign embassies such as Japan, South Korea, the US and UK - and they also require applicants to submit a social insurance certificate."
The new policy came after the National Security Council last month dispatched a team to investigate Tuguegarao, capital of Cagayan - located on the northern tip of Luzon island facing Taiwan - where some 4,600 Chinese nationals were enrolled in private universities.
Government officials had expressed concern earlier about the alarming surge of Chinese nationals studying in private universities in Tuguegarao City, which also houses three new sites under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), a pact with the United States that allows it to access military bases in the Philippines.
Asked on Thursday by reporters if the new policy was linked to Beijing's growing aggression in the South China Sea and the alleged potential sleeper cells operating in Cagayan, Domingo clarified that the crackdown was not related to national security.
The DFA, according to Domingo, will continue to require the "presentation of proof for financial capacity with employment certificate and bank statements", but authorities will be more vigilant in "scrutinising" applicants' documents.
"This is also for the good of the Chinese because again these Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) who are able to get away, who are their victims? Their fellow Chinese" he said.
Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and lecturer at the Department of International Studies of De La Salle University, described the government's action as an added layer of protection amid growing concerns of Chinese activities in the country, including the Pogo operations.
"This comes at a time when China continues to escalate its information operations in the Philippines. Therefore, as any responsible agency would, such measures are needed to ensure legitimacy," Gill told This Week in Asia.
"There is a possibility for China to retaliate by imposing certain restrictions or adding additional requirements for Filipinos who visit China. Beijing is quite notorious for its tit-for-tat strategy when it comes to immigration policies," he added.
In 2012, China imposed tighter controls over banana imports from the Philippines after the Southeast Asian nation took Beijing to the international court alleging that Chinese naval vessels obstructed Manila's entry to the Scarborough Shoal.
An international tribunal eventually dismissed in 2016 China's sweeping claims over the South China Sea, including its islands, but Beijing, which has competing claims with Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines in the waterway, has refused to accept the ruling.
Defence analyst Chester Cabalza, founding president of the International Development and Security Cooperation, said he hoped China and the world would not perceive Manila's new visa policy as Sinophobic or racist.
"Manila has the right to cast doubts and will certainly have a prerogative to filter visa issuances. It is the duty of the DFA to protect our state from potential national security threats," Cabalza said.
"It is rational for the Philippines to strictly require a social insurance certificate to profile the visitors and know their intents in travelling or studying to key strategic locations amid the blow-by-blow aggression of China to our maritime waterways and economic hotspots," he stressed.
The Pogo industry has been expanding exponentially in recent years, as operators cashed in on the country's liberal gaming laws to target customers in China, where gambling is banned.
At their peak, Pogos hired more than 300,000 Chinese workers. According to official estimates, Pogo workers legally staying in the Philippines number between 100,000 and 150,000.
During his six years in office, former president Rodrigo Duterte sought closer ties with Beijing that led to an influx of Chinese investments, businesses and tourists.
Ray Powell, a maritime security analyst at the Gordian Knot Centre for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, said Manila's new policy might marginally exacerbate tensions.
"But these seem like reasonable steps to deal with an acute and well-documented security problem. Whether Beijing uses the Pogos as a hub for conducting espionage is unclear, but certainly organised crime is a real threat," Powell said.
On Tuesday at a Senate hearing, lawmakers alleged that a Pogo operation within a 7.9-hectare (19.5-acre) property that was raided by authorities in the town of Bamban in Tarlac province was not only linked to internet fraud but to surveillance activities and cyberattacks targeting state agencies.
Law enforcers raided the property owned by Baofu Land Development Inc on March 13 after a Vietnamese worker managed to escape. Around 800 victims, 427 of them Chinese nationals, were rescued.
"I was very disturbed to hear that there is persuasive information from the intelligence community stating that this Bamban complex was being used for surveillance activities," Senator Risa Hontiveros said.
"Are Pogos now being used to spy on us? Are we being fried on our own oil?" she asked.
In the same senate investigation, recent incidents of cyberattacks against government websites were traced to the compound.
"Is there a larger and more sinister end game besides Pogos and scams? It does not abate my worries that separate sources in the intelligence community and various executive agencies are sounding the alarm about large tracts of land around EDCA sites being purchased by Chinese nationals with Filipino identity documents," the opposition senator claimed.
Another lawmaker, Sherwin Gatchalian, shared the same concern and blamed the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp for its continued failure to prevent crimes being committed by licensed Pogos.
According to him, he was provided with information pertaining to some establishments inside the Baofu compound tied to online surveillance and hacking.
"Some technology and personalities who had entered the country were being used in cyberattacks against the Philippine government," Gatchalian told reporters.
"They are apparently moving from scamming to cyberattacks in our own country. So we should really look at that angle. That's why I don't see any benefit of having Pogos because all kinds of crimes are linked to it," he added.
However, congressman Cheeno Almario of Davao Oriental in the southern Philippines, said while they had confirmed some of the attacks had been traced to "Chinese actors", it was difficult to link these with Manila's maritime conflict with Beijing.
"Let us not discount that there are also some attacks that came from other areas. Some of the attempts are terroristic in nature. Some of the attempts are also not mainly just to extort money or to show the people that there is a vulnerability in the system," said Almario, also house committee vice-chair for information and communications technology.
But Hontiveros urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr to ban Pogo operations in the country if the government was sincere in fighting crimes and national security threats.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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