Philippine defence chief warns Chinese teaching exchanges pose grey-zone threat

Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr has urged greater vigilance over academic exchange programmes with China following reports that language teachers in Manila had been trained by a Chinese university at the centre of a recent controversy over the Batanes Islands. Speaking in Manila on Wednesday, Teodoro cautioned that foreign-linked educational initiatives risked being exploited as conduits for grey-zone influence and state-sponsored disinformation.