In the chessboard that is the South China Sea, the Ferdinand Marcos Jr government in the Philippines just made a move so reckless that it would seem Manila was shooting itself in the foot. Fresh off a diplomatic engagement in Quanzhou, Fujian province, where Beijing urged it to match its words with deeds, Manila decided it was a “smart play” to rename more than 100 Chinese islands and reefs — an act of provocation that violates international law and exposes the absurdity of its two-faced foreign policy.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, for all its nuances, is crystal clear: sovereignty is the foundation of naming rights. And as China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning plainly put it: China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. Thus, Beijing firmly opposes the Philippines’ acts that harm China’s sovereignty and interests and will take necessary measures to resolutely defend the country’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, Mao said.

The UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names explicitly forbids such unilateral naming. Yet Manila has been emboldened to do so by cozying up to United States warships and Japanese diplomats, who care more about containing China than helping the Philippines avoid a diplomatic shipwreck.

Last month’s antics — Philippine vessels provoked China Coast Guard and People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels in different parts of the South China Sea — were already bad enough. But renaming China’s islands and reefs while promising to “properly manage differences” shows that Manila is playing a double-handed game. On the one hand, it is clinging to the US for military support, letting US troops use Philippine bases as a staging ground in the South China Sea, and schmoozing with Japan’s hawkish government to beef up “security cooperation”. On the other hand, it appreciates China’s stable trade and investment amid the Middle East crisis and has been effusive in its gratitude for China’s stable fertilizer supply.

China has encouraged the Philippines, as the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, to push for substantive progress on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea negotiations. However, even if the COC finally materializes, it remains to be seen whether Manila will treat it as a shield to continue its double-handed game by misinterpreting the document.

China has been the Philippines’ major trading partner for years. Amid the global supply chain chaos caused by the conflict in the Middle East, the Philippines needs China more than ever to maintain economic stability. Yet Marcos is risking that lifeline for a symbolic gesture. Renaming reefs won’t put food on the table, won’t ease his country’s energy shortage and won’t create jobs. Beijing can see through Manila’s tricks and they will make it reconsider its patience.

A dilapidated warship the Philippines illegally ran aground on China’s Ren’ai Reef has stayed there for more than two decades. The Philippines continues to deliver supplies to the soldiers on board and shamelessly claims that the reef beneath that rusty hulk and the waters surrounding the reef “belong to” it. Were it not for China’s long-term strategic restraint, that would not have been allowed to happen.

Manila will pay the price for mistaking Beijing’s patience for a sign of weakness. It should understand that patience comes from keeping the bigger picture of regional peace and stability in mind and that maritime disputes cannot and shouldn’t define the overall China-Philippines relations.

A critical question facing the Marcos government is this: which country is genuinely supporting it, and which is treating it as a proxy?