New Delhi, July 17 -- the upload date coincided with the tenth anniversary of an international tribunal ruling that Beijing has refused to accept.

The video, 58 seconds of computer-generated animation uploaded on July 10, depicts a monkey wearing Filipino attire at a karaoke stage aboard a boat. Arms extending from figures holding American and Japanese flags push and direct the animal on what to perform. When scolded for singing the wrong song, the monkey produces a sheet bearing the words "South China Sea arbitration award." It is then thrown into the sea and blasted by a water cannon from a passing vessel.

"Disagreement over legal and political issues does not justify resorting to disturbing imagery, which has no place in the civil pu...