Mea culpa or what else?
Yeh Young-june
The author is the editor ofthe JoongAng Sunday.
China brushed off Korea’s request for Beijing to take an appropriate action after its ambassador to Seoul, Xing Haiming, made offensive remarks about Korea-U.S. and Korea-China relations in a meeting with Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul. The Chinese Foreign Ministry dismissed the request by saying, “Xing’s broad contacts and exchanges with Koreans from all walks of life are within the boundaries of his mission as ambassador.” In that meeting on June 8, Xing warned, “Korea will regret if it bets on China’s defeat in the hegemony contest between China and the U.S.”
We don’t find fault with the Chinese ambassador meeting with political heavyweights in Korea and inviting them to his embassy. The problem is that he crossed the line. The episode in the Chinese embassy exposed the real face of China’s “wolf warrior diplomacy.”
The phrase itself is contradictory. Could “warrior” really reconcile with diplomacy? China thinks it can — thanks to the social consensus or Beijing’s demand that even diplomats must wage a patriotic battle against other governments or people. They can resort to diplomatic rhetoric or consideration, if necessary. The oxymoronic phrase originated from the movie “Wolf Warriors II,” a big hit in China in 2017. At the end of the film about the marvelous achievements of a Chinese special force, this provocative line — “We will punish anyone insulting China, no matter what!” — appears.
Xing was not the first one. In 2016, at the climax of the conflict over Korea’s decision to deploy the U.S. Thaad missile defense system, a Chinese diplomat asked a group of Korean businessmen, “How can a small country stand up to a big country?” The diplomat returned home after meeting a number of top officials in the Korean government and legislature. At that time, he was a deputy director-level diplomat in China. Given his career as a chargé d’affaires in Korea, he may return as China’s ambassador to Seoul sometime in the future.
Before Xing, there was another Chinese official who warned Korea not to choose between Washington and Beijing, which borders on an intervention in domestic affairs or a reprimand or both. That happened ten years ago.
Why does China repeatedly show such a condescending attitude? In the Chinese embassy in Seoul, DP chief Lee handed over the microphone to Xing when the camera was rolling. If Lee had criticized Xing’s improper remarks or put the brakes on them, he could have emerged as an opposition leader with dignity. But he was listening to the ambassador reading a carefully prepared script for 15 minutes with his hands folded — probably as a gesture to show his respect to the Chinese ambassador. In a nutshell, it was Korea’s wrong reaction that helped embolden the Chinese.
China cherishes the United Front policy, which refers to the strategy of drawing allies to its side if it cannot achieve goals on its own. The same applies to diplomacy. When its relations with a conservative government in Korea hits rock bottom, China joins hands with opposition parties. After the Park Geun-hye administration deployed the Thaad anti-missile system, China invited a delegation of Korea’s opposition party to the Foreign Ministry in Beijing. After the meeting was over, those opposition lawmakers said, “After listening to what the Chinese government said, we reached the conclusion that China’s retaliation for our Thaad deployment will end once we take power.”
After the opposition party took power in 2017, what China demanded first was consultation over the so-called three nos — no additional Thaad deployments, no joining of a broader U.S. missile defense system, and no Korea-U.S.-Japan military alliance. The danger of China’s United Front is that the object of the campaign — whether it be an organization or a person — is oblivious of the danger. A DP lawmaker who attended a controversial event organized by the Chinese government and the Communist Party in Tibet even said, “What’s wrong with it?” after delivering a congratulatory speech.
Xing has emerged as a star in China’s Foreign Ministry. National Security Advisor Cho Tae-yong gently said, “It is inappropriate for me [a top government official] to speak about the Chinese ambassador.” But his comment sounded empty, as it came after President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed outrage over Xing’s remarks earlier. In the meantime, Xing, just one of tens of thousands of director-level officials in China, rose to stardom — as a superheavyweight warrior diplomat. No doubt Korea contributed to his dramatic ascension.
이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 8일 저녁 서울 성북구 중국대사관저에서 싱하이밍 주한중국대사를 예방해 인사말을 하고 있다. 230608
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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