FILIPINO public school children were recruited into a Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked propaganda campaign last year, an investigation by the SeaLight Foundation has revealed. “This is how influence operations work,” said Ray Powell, executive director of the California-based SeaLight Foundation. “Students and their parents had no idea they were participating in a foreign state’s geopolitical messaging. A contest that looked like peace education was actually a carefully orchestrated propaganda exercise.” SeaLight said Chinese Filipino education groups, working closely with Beijing-affiliated organizations, staged essay contests for students under the guise of “peace education” and historical commemoration. Distributed through official Department of Education (DepEd) channels, the contests urged students to echo anti-Japan sentiments aligned with CCP messaging. DepEd’s National Capital Region office circulated Regional Letter 107, series of 2025, inviting schools to participate in the contest commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory over Imperial Japan. On the surface, the initiative appeared to be a legitimate educational opportunity, offering cash prizes for winning students and their advisers, as well as additional incentives for schools with high participation, Powell said. But a deeper investigation showed the essays were structured to follow narratives coordinated through Beijing’s United Front Work Department, he said. Filipino children were effectively used as instruments in an international information campaign, with Japan and Taiwan cast as targets of historical grievances. Powell said James Wang, also known as Huang Duanming, president of the Philippine Chinese Education Research Center (PCERC), presented the contest as a way to “remember history, cherish peace, and uphold the spirit of solidarity between the peoples of the Philippines and China.” “But Wang’s group has admitted to close collaboration with Chinese state agencies, including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture, and the United Front Work Department,” he said. The contest culminated in October during a series of United Front events in Manila, including the Eighth China Peaceful Reunification Asia Forum. Filipino student winners were awarded prizes in the middle of a political rally promoting Beijing’s “one-China” principle and anti-Taiwan messaging, Powell said. “This was not merely a school competition,” he said. “It was a carefully orchestrated operation to use minors in Manila as props for a foreign state’s geopolitical agenda — all under the guise of educational activity.” Similar essay contests have been held in the Philippines during previous CCP commemorations, following a long-standing pattern of United Front operations targeting the Filipino Chinese community, Powell said. “Parents and educators must know who is behind programs affecting children,” he added. “Foreign governments should not be allowed to hide behind civic groups to recruit minors into political messaging.” The SeaLight study called on Philippine authorities to review protocols for vetting foreign-linked educational initiatives, to ensure that programs distributed in schools are genuinely educational and free from hidden political agendas.