The document has been updated, but not the below information.
Document: War of Ideas in the Indo-Pacific document
YouTube: Senate Hearing on China’s Behavior in the Indo-Pacific
Two names that Powell brings up in his written testimony are Anna Maligdog-Uy and Rommel Banlaoi. Anna is with the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute (ACPSSI), along with Herman Tiu Laurel, Adolfo Paglinawan, and Rod Kapunan (who are mentioned in the Reuters article linked below, as well as Banlaoi). I originally heard of Ray Powell and what was initially Project Myoushu, now SeaLight, through their Asian Century Journal. I have documented and verified their claims about SeaLight and summarized them in my article that was published back in November. Powell also mentioned the August 11th incident, but he left out one important aspect—the KBBM program (see below).
Note that they’re now referring to the “transparency initiative” as “assertive transparency.” One Filipino told me that they refer to it as the “assertive transparency initiative.”
The irony? The U.S. has backed Powell’s influence operation in the Philippines since at least 2023. CSIS laid the groundwork before SeaLight, and “assertive transparency” wasn’t new—it echoed tactics from the Moro conflict.*
What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China
So-called influence operations & red-tagging anti-war advocates
Reuters: How China waged an infowar against U.S. interests in the Philippines (archived)
Quotes: Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Cyabra, Graphika
InfinitUs first came under the spotlight at an April Senate hearing, when then-Majority Leader Francis Tolentino accused it of using fake accounts to boost the embassy’s profile and conduct an “influence operation” against the Philippines. Tolentino produced a copy of a check from the embassy to InfinitUs and highlighted posts by accounts that Reuters later identified as inauthentic, but he did not elaborate further.
…
The accounts also promoted pro-China content featuring Filipino media personalities. They include Rommel Banlaoi, a Chinese-educated counter-terrorism scholar whose 2022 nomination to be deputy national security advisor was successfully opposed by security officials.
Banlaoi was among dozens of prominent Filipinos who have received awards from the Association of Philippines-China Understanding (APCU) since 2021. The organization was re-established by ex-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo and a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agency that the U.S. previously accused of “co-opting subnational governments.”
…
Reuters revealed last year the U.S. had operated a program during the pandemic to undermine Chinese vaccines in the Philippines, including through fake social-media accounts.
The Chinese embassy said at that time that Washington should “stop slandering and smearing other countries.”
The U.S. has more recently slashed funding for programs aimed at countering Beijing’s propaganda. In April, the State Department shuttered an office that had worked closely with Manila to counter Chinese influence campaigns after Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused it of censorship and wasting funds.
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U.S.-based disinformation analytics firm Cyabra told Reuters that a surge of fake accounts likely linked to Beijing also targeted Marcos Jr on X with allegations of corruption and drug addiction during the campaigning period.
Reuters was not able to verify independently the existence of such a campaign but it reviewed many unsubstantiated X posts during that period that accused the president of illegal behavior.
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They include Manuel Mamba, a provincial leader who has opposed some plans to host the U.S. military; Regina Tecson, a key aide to Duterte’s daughter Sara; and Jaime T. Cruz and Carlos Chan, both former envoys to Beijing.
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Other recipients announced by APCU include Banlaoi, the national security nominee, as well as writers Herman Tiu Laurel, Adolfo Paglinawan and Rod Kapunan.
All four were also identified as instruments for Chinese influence in a 2024 presentation about foreign interference created for internal use by a Philippine security agency [Stratbase ADRi?] and seen by Reuters.
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Polls show the frontrunner for the 2028 presidential elections is Sara Duterte, who has criticized the term-limited Marcos Jr’s pro-American policies.
Rubio shuts State Dept. foreign disinformation office, citing censorship
The closure of the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, known as R/FIMI, marks a significant win for conservatives who claimed they were targeted by government-sponsored disinformation efforts. R/FIMI was founded from the remnants of the Global Engagement Center (GEC), a larger office that was closed late last year after Republicans blocked its funding.
The GEC was established almost a decade ago, growing out of an executive order issued by President Barack Obama to counter online Islamic State radicalization and violent extremism. Its remit was expanded in 2016 amid the assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia and other foreign nations had tried to influence the election in Donald Trump’s favor.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) – ASPI Funding
Mike Pompeo, Board Member at Cyabra
Scroll down, Cyabra is backed by Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund
Global Engagement Center Fighting Russian Propaganda with American Propaganda
5GW: 2012 NDAA – Propaganda – MISO – InfoOps – PsyOps
Graphika In The News: Reuters On China’s Cyber War Against Philippines, U.S. Interests
Graphika: The Deep State’s Beard for Controlling the Information Age (Archived)
I’m pretty sure that Reuters was referring to the following Stratbase ADRi video clips:
IO SCS: Slandering Pro-Peace Influencers
Pro-peace (see links in description)
Full video: ADRi Event: “Unveiling Asymmetric Challenges through Assertive Transparency”
Who’s behind the impeachment of Sara Duterte: PH Stratbase document / Gen Z Philippines document
The uptake was inevitable. The hearing just made it official.
The Marriage of RAND and SeaLight
A quick Google search for “Countering ICAD” brought up RAND’s paper, “How the United States Can Support Allied and Partner Efforts to Counter China in the Gray Zone.”
What Is the Gray Zone?
The gray zone—the behaviors of which are now being referred to as illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive (ICAD)—is a subjective term with a great deal of variance in its definition and the activities that it encompasses. Nonetheless, building on previous RAND research, we adopt the following definition of the gray zone.
The gray zone is an operational space between peace and war, involving coercive actions to change the status quo below a threshold that, in most cases, would prompt a conventional military response, often by blurring the line between military and nonmilitary actions and the attribution for events.
Work in Progress: RAND & SeaLight document
Summaries on my WordPress:
- The marriage of RAND and SeaLight
- More notes on the marriage of RAND and SeaLight
- Part 3a: RAND and SeaLight – Taiwan Relations Act
- RAND and SeaLight Part 3b: Four Ways China Is Growing Its Media Influence in Southeast Asia
The Rand Corporation: The Think Tank That Controls America (archived)
What Powell Didn’t Say About August 11th: The KBBM Program
For brevity, I won’t repost the full content of the following posts here, but I’ve included links to my WordPress where they appear in full. The document also contains them in their entirety. What matters most about the Fisherfolk/KBBM program is the ambiguity at its core: China may—or may not—perceive these actors as armed.
The August 11 SCS Incident & US-Backed Fisherfolk Collectives in the Philippines
China is imperialist. Powell’s favorite refrain. 🤦🏼♀️
Capes, Cameras, and the Cult of Visibility: The SeaLight Crusade as White Savior Theater
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 