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I think a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment in the Philippines is merely manufactured through co-ordinated media warfare and does not reflect the realities of beliefs of people on the ground. My filipino comrades can clarify this further, but from what I know, yes there may be millions, but for a region with nearly 600million people, and a country of 100million, even tens of millions still does not amount to a majority. A sizeable minority at best.

Indonesia is a unique case in that they do not actually have any overlapping SCS claims because they don’t actually neighbour the South China Sea. I would also say out of the major Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia is the only postcolonial country without a sizeable comprador diaspora or colonial-era Western educated comprador elite with sizeable power. That isn’t to say there aren’t comprador and reactionary forces within Indonesia, but there has not been a complete Western ideological capture of educational institutions within the country. They definitely do not subscribe to Eurocentric perversions of International Relations and foreign policy, which is what my critique is specifically based on. Talks of the Bandung spirit still lives strong.

Malaysia, well that’s where I am from, and I have nearly finished editing an essay on Malaysian foreign policy. And again, contrary to this weird assumption that postcolonial countries are only filled with pro-colonizer compradors, being Anti-West in Malaysia is the norm. You talk to a random guy on the street and chances are they’d praise Russia before they’d have anything positive to say about the US. There is a decent comprador population in Malaysia of course, but most of their concerns are funnelled through domestic policy issues and NGOs, and rarely does the mainstream and comprador media here talk about the South China Sea, especially with the sort of veracity and explicit anti-China bias you find in the West.

It is a complete fabrication made to enthuse the War profiteers than something that will actually lead to all-out instability (unless through US provocations by proxy of the Philippines and Taiwan).

Edit: I was wrong about Indonesia not having claims in the SCS, for I thought they had already solved the disputed claims diplomatically but actually the “North Natuna Sea” as coined by the Indonesian side still remains disputed territory. Although under the new Indonesian administration, Indonesia seemed quite happy with China’s joint development proposal, in which I generally personally agree with aswell.

But regardless, the lack of news being raised about this signifies it’s non-importance, especially considering from what I know there has been no updates on the overlapping claims of Malaysia-Indonesia.