Japan-bashing versus provoking China

Chang Se-jeong
The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there,” U.S. President Joe Biden said at a fundraising event on June 20. “No, I’m serious. That’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened.”

At a press briefing the next day, a spokesman from the Chinese Foreign Ministry furiously responded that Biden’s remarks “seriously violated basic facts, diplomatic protocol and China’s political dignity.” The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. also urged the U.S. “to immediately take earnest actions to undo the negative impact and honor its own commitments.”

But Biden reaffirmed his remarks, fueling China’s anger. Without apologizing for calling Xi a “dictator,” Biden said, “The idea of me choosing and avoiding saying what I think is facts with regard to the relationship with China is just not something I’m going to change very much.”

When we look at Korea’s diplomacy, politicians — liberal or conservative — often make careless slips of the tongue. Rigid and biased diplomatic moves continued to damage the national interest.

The Moon Jae-in administration’s diplomacy centered on fueling anti-Japan sentiment is one example. In December 2015, his predecessor Park Geun-hye managed to produce a resolution to the comfort women issue through a deal with then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but the following Moon administration made the agreement null and void.

The behavior of the Democratic Party (DP) bent on seeking domestic political gains by provoking anti-Japanese sentiment has not changed yet. On April 19, 2021, then Minister of Foreign Affairs Chung Eui-yong answered a National Assembly inquiry about Japan’s plan to discharge treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. “If three conditions are met — and if the discharge respects the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] — there is no reason to object to it,” he said at the time.

The three conditions he referred to is that the Japanese government present sufficient scientific grounds and share information, consult with the Korean government in advance, and guarantee the participation of Korean experts in the IAEA verification process. But the DP changed its position after losing the presidential election. The DP has been conducting a national signature campaign against the discharge of nuclear waste water from Fukushima and import of fisheries products.

Could the politics of agitation in defiance of science truly help the livelihoods of our fishermen and workers of the industry? Their attitude is no different from the time when they had stirred controversies over the possibility of mad cow disease from U.S. beef imports, not to mention the wild rumors about the sinking of the Cheonan warship and the Sewol ferry, the impact of electromagnetic waves from the Thaad missile defense system on melons in the nearby farms.

The conservative administrations’ attitudes toward China also fluctuate widely. The Park administration leaned too much to China for Beijing to play a key role in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis. In fact, President Park attended the military parade marking China’s 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. But she came back empty-handed.

The general direction of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s diplomacy aimed at normalizing Korea-Japan relations, strengthening the Korea-U.S. alliance and promoting Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation seems reasonable. But when tensions escalate between China and Taiwan, Yoon’s public expression of opposition to any attempts to alter the status quo of the Taiwan Strait by force seemed unnecessary.

Diplomacy must put the highest priority on national interests. We must calmly grasp the geopolitical reality of Korea and take diplomatic steps that fit our national powers. Japan and China should not be taken lightly. Both the liberals and conservatives must abandon the temptation to use anti-Japan or anti-China sentiment for domestic political gains. Korea is a country with the world’s 6th military power and the 10th largest economy, but we must be wary of rashness and impatience.