Filipinos' disapproval of China's leadership soars

MANILA, Philippines — Nearly two in three Filipinos, or 65 percent, gave China's leadership a low approval in a recent nationwide survey conducted by Washington-based pollster Gallup.

In a Gallup report released Wednesday, Beijing got the approval of 22 percent, while the remaining 14 percent of Filipino respondents do not have an opinion.

The disapproval ratings were twice as high as they were in 2010, when only 32 percent of Filipinos said they disapproved of Beijing while 25 percent had no opinion.

Approval ratings of China's leadership in the Philippines through the years. Gallup

The 64-percent rating comes as the tension over maritime areas continues to boil between the Philippines and China, who are nevertheless strong trade partners.

Gallup partner Chris Stewart noted that Filipinos' disapproval of China's leadership began to soar when the row flared up in 2011 when a Chinese frigate fired shots at Filipino fishing boats near a disputed reef.

An incident in early 2012—when the Philippine Navy vessel BRP Gregorio del Pilar was involved in a standoff with two Chinese surveillance vessels near Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal—could have also led to the rise in disapproval ratings.

"Shortly after the Scarborough Shoal standoff began, disapproval surged to 57 percent, and edged higher and solidified in 2014 at 64 percent," Stewart said in the report.

The results are based on face-to-face interviews conducted in May 2015 with 1,001 adults in the Philippines. The margin of sampling error is ±3.7 percentage points.

A delegation from the Philippines on Thursday began its second day of oral arguments against China's expansive sea claims before the arbitral tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea at The Hague, Netherlands.

China, however, has refused to participate in the proceedings and insisted on its "indisputable sovereignty" over the maritime areas.

RELATED: Day 2 at The Hague: China hit for interfering with fishing in disputed sea