[4] Relations deteriorated during the presidency of Bongbong Marcos due to increasing tensions over the South China sea dispute,[5] culminating in the Philippines' withdrawal from the Belt and Road initiative in 2023.

[8] It began considering normalizing relations with the People's Republic at the start of the 1970s and the Philippines recognized the PRC on 9 June 1975, with the signing of the Joint Communiqué by leaders of the two countries.

[11][12] On 16 November 2017, the Philippines and China signed fourteen deals on a variety of issues, including transportation and military aid, worth approximately US$21.6 million.

[10]: 169 In July 2019, UN ambassadors of 37 countries, including Philippines, signed a joint letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council defending China's policies of persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

[14] During the respective visits of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping's visit to the Philippines, the two agreed to a significant increase of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the People's Republic of China as part of Xi's Belt and Road Initiative.

In 1567, the Spanish trade port in the city of Manila in the Philippines as part of the Spanish colonial empire was opened which until the fall of the Ming dynasty brought over forty million Kuping Taels of silver to China with the annual Chinese imports numbering at 53,000,000 pesos (each peso being 8 real) or 300,000 Kuping Taels.

Market access is sometimes used as a tool of Chinese diplomacy; banana exports from the Philippines have previously been restricted during times of geopolitical tension.

In October 2004, Chinese Maritime Safety Administration and Philippine Coast Guard conducted a joint sand table rescue exercise for the first time.

Oil companies from three countries signed the "Agreement for Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking on Certain Areas in the South China Sea" in March 2005.

[61]: 122 In January 2013, the Philippines formally initiated arbitration proceedings against China's claim on the territories within the nine-dash line that includes Spratly Islands, which it contended was unlawful under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

[61]: 129  In an effort to demonstrate its cooperative approach, following the visit China allowed Filipino fisherman to return to the area of Scarborough Shoal.

[61]: 129 In April 2019, international satellites and local reports revealed that Chinese ships have swarmed Philippine-controlled areas in the South China Sea through a cabbage strategy.

[72][73][74] Later reports showed that endangered giant clams under Philippine law protection were illegally being harvested by Chinese ships.

[78] On 9 June 2019, a Chinese ship, Yuemaobinyu 42212, rammed and sank a Philippine fishing vessel, F/B Gem-Ver, near Reed Bank, west of Palawan.

The campaign used fake profiles in an attempt to influence public opinion, particularly related to politics and the South China Sea.

[88][89] The election of Philippine president Bongbong Marcos in 2022 saw the onset of worsening Philippine-China relations and frequent skirmishes in the South China Sea.

[90][91] Marcos' decision to increase the number of Philippine bases the United States military troops can use under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement from five to nine met vehement opposition from the Chinese government.

[99] In April 2024, the Philippine Coast Guard deployed one of its key patrol ships, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, to the Sabina Shoal area after Filipino scientists discovered submerged piles of crushed corals in its shallows, raising suspicions that the Chinese may be preparing to build a structure on the site.

[100] Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning described the Philippines' anchoring of the vessel in the shoal as a strategy to "permanently occupy the area".

[101] The United States' deployment of the Typhon missile system in northern Philippines in April 2024 prompted condemnation from China and Russia, which respectively accused the US of threatening regional peace and stoking an arms race.

[102][103] In March 2017, Chinese ships were spotted in the Benham Rise, a protected food supply exclusive zone of the Philippines.

The Philippines, through its ambassador to Beijing has officially asked China to explain the reported presence of one of its vessels in Benham Rise in the Pacific.

[104][105] A week later, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying that China is honoring the Philippines' sovereign rights over Benham Rise, and that the ship was passing by.

[118] A June 2024 Reuters investigative report later revealed that the United States allegedly launched at the height of the pandemic a clandestine campaign to undermine China's growing influence in the Philippines and to erode Filipinos' public trust on China's Sinovac vaccine, face masks, and testing kits, thereby causing economic damage and putting innocent lives at risk.

[119] Amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea during the Bongbong Marcos administration in April 2024, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and the National Bureau of Investigation announced that they would investigate an influx of over a thousand Chinese students enrolled in private universities in Cagayan, a province facing Taiwan, most of whom were not attending classes, according to the Bureau of Immigration.

[120][121][122] Several universities and colleges in Cagayan rejected the allegations, and called the national security concerns regarding the Chinese students influx as a "blatant display of racism and Sinophobia".

[124] Bloomberg News reported that the Chinese government has invested heavily in Cagayan and attempted to woo local political elites.

[130] In July 2024, the Senate of the Philippines issued an arrest order for Guo and some of her family members for failing to attend a second consecutive hearing.

[134] On 22 July 2024, President Marcos announced the nationwide ban of POGOs in his State of the Nation Address due to numerous security concerns.

[135][136] In August 2024, Rappler reported that the Manila bureau chief of Wenhui Bao from 2021 until 2024, Zhang "Steve" Song, was an undercover Ministry of State Security (MSS) operative who worked closely with Huawei and gathered intelligence about the internal dynamics and politics of key personalities in the country's defense and security sectors.