According to a report by The South China Morning Post on September 23, in a restroom at a car wash in the southern Philippine city of Davao, Shennielan Fomonto was waiting for customers to pay while using her Chinese-made phone to browse messages.
A 29-year-old woman named Fu Men Tu has been working as a cashier for about a year. She is aware of the situation in the South China Sea through social media posts and news reports she shares.
Although she considered these events “disheartening,” ultimately, her opinion of Beijing was still better than that of Washington. She attributed the high energy prices in the Philippines and other regions of the world to the United States.
She said, “This is why I prefer China over the United States. Look at what’s happening now… Due to the US-Iran war, fuel prices are skyrocketing.”
Fomente's views reflect a change in the way Filipinos perceive China: compared to the older generation, young Filipinos are more likely to have positive opinions of China.
A new survey released by the Pew Research Center in the United States on July 15 found that 47% of Filipinos aged 18 to 34 have a positive view of China. Among those aged 35 to 49 and 50 and above, the percentages are 44% and 27%, respectively.
The survey also found that 61% of Filipino people aged 18 to 34 believe that China can make correct decisions in international affairs.
The Pew Research Center’s survey did not determine why young Filipinos have a more positive view of China. However, experts pointed out that this may be related to the way they come into contact with China in their daily lives, as well as the changing perceptions of China’s economic and political rise across different generations.
Philippine University Diliman College political science associate professor Jan Robert R. Go said, “In my opinion, young Filipinos come into contact with China in many different ways. They are exposed to Chinese technology and consumer goods, entertainment content, tourism-related information, as well as posts about Chinese life on social media.”
"This is precisely the point where I find the concept of 'everyday China' very useful. I mean, the everyday China people encounter in daily life, which often happens outside of formal politics and diplomacy. These experiences might give young Filipinos a more diverse impression of China."
But Go reminded that the positive views that young Filipinos have of China should not be interpreted as evidence of their growing distance from the United States.
He said, “I think the figure of 61% is particularly interesting, because it indicates that we should be cautious and not assume that people’s attitudes towards various aspects of China will change simultaneously.”
In fact, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 76% of Filipino respondents considered China to be the biggest threat to their country. Additionally, 86% of respondents said they were very or somewhat worried about territorial disputes between China and its neighboring countries. The Pew Research Center did not provide specific data for these issues by age group.
Paris Ninth University's professor of geopolitics, Alain Lewo, said that the coexistence of these different opinions is one of the most noteworthy findings in the investigation.
He stated that collective memories of different generations may also help to explain this difference.
The older generation of Filipinos grew up in an environment where the United States held a particularly central position both strategically and culturally, while China was much farther away from them at that time.
In contrast, Filipino youth grew up in an era when China's economic strength is strong, technology is advanced, and China is deeply integrated into Asian trade and supply chains.
Leo said, "In their eyes, China is a country with smartphones, digital platforms, high-speed trains, electric vehicles, large cities, and a vast Asian consumer market."
"For young people in Asia, China's rise has become a normal part of the international landscape. They have not experienced the transformation of the regional system led by the United States like the older generation did. For them, multipolarization is not a disruptive change, but rather something that is increasingly becoming the world they have always been familiar with."
Manila St. Benilde University Law School Professor Edmund Tayao said that some Filipinos may also have a positive view of China because they are impressed by China's pace of development and hope that the Philippines can achieve similar progress.
