Rival parties spar over China, foreigner voting rights

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Rival parties spar over China, foreigner voting rights

Published: 21 Jun. 2023, 19:21

People Power Party leader Kim Gi-hyeon speaks at a forum hosted by the Korean News Editors' Association on Wednesday at the Korean Federation of Banks hall in Jung District, central Seoul. [YONHAP]

The debate over the voting rights of foreign and especially Chinese nationals heated up Wednesday as officials from the conservative People Power Party (PPP) and liberal Democratic Party (DP) sparred via media over whether the former’s proposal to disenfranchise residents from certain countries is about reciprocity or discrimination.

At a forum hosted by the Korea News Editors’ Association on Wednesday, PPP leader Kim Gi-hyeon argued that foreign residents from countries that don’t allow Korean residents to vote in their local elections should likewise be barred from voting in Korea.

Kim said that the 2005 law extending suffrage to foreign residents of Korea “wasn't aimed at inducing only Japan to grant similar rights for its Korean residents” and that “the lack of progress in achieving reciprocal rights [for Koreans in certain countries] after more than a decade” signals that the law should be re-examined.

The PPP leader’s comments at the forum followed his speech at the National Assembly the previous day, where he argued that “Korea-China relations need to be re-established under the principle of reciprocity.”

Kim also noted that “about 100,000 Chinese people living in Korea had the right to vote in the regional elections held in June last year, but voting rights are not granted to our people living in China.”

At Wednesday’s forum, the PPP leader further argued that the issue was not just one of reciprocity, but also one of many issues plaguing what he characterized as an unequal relationship between Seoul and Beijing.

Kim said, “Some say that we’re headed for a showdown with China, but I disagree. We are a sovereign country with the right to stand up for ourselves, and we should be able to ask why Lotte was punished and why we’re being held to the ‘Three No’s policy.’”

Kim’s comments referred to China’s retaliation against Korean businesses, and especially Lotte, after the installation of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery on a golf course owned by the company.

Since the Yoon Suk Yeol administration took office, Beijing has urged Seoul to abide by the Three No’s policy, whereby the previous Moon administration said in October 2017 that Korea would not allow additional Thaad batteries on its territory, participate in a U.S. missile defense network or join a trilateral military alliance with the United States and Japan in return for China lifting its business restrictions.

The PPP leader also argued that the DP’s approach to China was inconsistent with its stance regarding Japan.

“If the Japanese ambassador had made remarks like [Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming], do you think the DP would have taken it lying down? Of course not. They would immediately come out with a boycott against Japanese goods,” Kim said as he argued that restoring “reciprocity” in relations with China was his party’s foreign policy goal.

Seoul and Beijing recently locked heads over Xing’s controversial warning to Korea that it would “regret betting against China” in its strategic competition with the United States.

DP leader Lee Jae-myung was criticized by PPP and government officials for listening to Xing without objecting to his choice of words.

Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon speaks at a press conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday about the Democratic Party's recent delegation to China to speak with Chinese policymakers and think tanks.

The PPP leader’s stance that Korea needs to “stand up to” China contrasted with that of the DP, whose officials argued that an improvement in Korea-China ties was necessary to avert an economic “nightmare” similar to the crisis over the Thaad deployment.

“Korean businesses concerned about the Yoon administration’s anti-China policy asked the DP to engage in balanced diplomacy,” DP lawmaker Kim Tae-nyeon said at a press conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Kim was part of a DP delegation that traveled to Beijing last week to meet with Chinese policymakers and think tanks that the PPP derided as “tribute diplomacy,” referring to the practice of Korean kings sending envoys bearing gifts to Chinese emperors to reaffirm the country’s vassal status.

But the DP lawmaker argued that the Yoon administration and PPP’s confrontational stance would only hurt Korean trade with China.

“Even the government acknowledges that a great deal of the ongoing slump in exports and the 14-month-long trade deficit is due to China. If anti-Korean sentiment in China rises because of our foreign policy, do you think our products will sell?” Kim asked.

The DP lawmaker also criticized the PPP leader’s call to disenfranchise Chinese residents as a “ploy” to “stoke anti-Chinese sentiment for the PPP’s benefit” ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]