Rounding Up Xi’s Visit to South Korea

I’m sure Japan still doesn’t like missiles being fired, but it’s not enough to annoy them, since they set up a hotline with North Korea to solve the abductee issue:

DPRK Leadership Watch has a very good diagram on the composition of the “DPRK Special Investigation into Japanese Nationals Residing in the DPRK” set up to investigate the abductee issue.

How exactly can Japan keep its cool? 習_서近_근平_평(Xi, Jin-Ping)‘s visit to South Korea, as mentioned in another post may shed some answers.

America’s Playbook in Asia comes down to playing two major countries: China and Japan. During the 1800s, with the Boxer Rebellion and an influx of Chinese migrating to America, the Chinese were the bad guy. In WWII, Japan was the bad guy. During the Cold War, China was the bad guy. Then, Japan was kicking America’s ass economically in the 1980s and it was the bad guy again, and for the past 10 years, America’s trade deficit and currency issues have made China out to be the bad guy.

Both North and South Korea are trying to rebalance their relations with their neighbors (just not with each other). Let’s take a look at 習_서近_근平_평(Xi, Jin-Ping)‘s speech at Seoul University:

習_서近_근平_평(Xi, Jin-Ping) described the intertwining Sino-Korean relations, by listing off well-known Koreans who cooperated with China in the past, including the 金_김九_구(Kim, Gu)‘s time in China resisting the Japanese, and the Korean author of the PLA Anthem 鄭_정律_률成_성(Zheng, Lücheng)
China sending troops to Korea to fight against the Japanese during the Ming dynasty
Criticized China’s demonization in the media.
Emphasized their “peaceful” rise, by concentrating on economic issues –something Koreans in their 40s and older can understand. Then, went on to talk about economic ties across all of Asia, note he didn’t say “Greater East-Asian Co-Prosperity”.
Went on to ephasize his disdain for nuclear weapons over the peninsula, and emphasized dialogue, and denuclearization of the entire peninsula. [In other words, if South Korea ever gets the idea it should start up its nuke program to match the North, China will not be happy].
Talked about the Korean drama “별에서 온 그대“, and how its impacted China’s youth, recognizing Korea’s new generation’s cultural influence.

China kept emphasizing the 朝_조鮮_선半_반島_도 (Korean peninsula). Saying things like “China is the 朝_조鮮_선半_반島_도‘s best friend”. But one thing to note, is that he didn’t say 韓_한半_반島_도, which is what the South Koreans refer to the peninsula as. So even though China was trying to be as neutral as it could, by referring to the peninsula at-large and not referring to 韓_한國_국 (“South Korea”, as it calls itself), or 朝_조鮮_선 (“North Korea” as the communist bloc and Japan refers to it), he still chose to use the term 朝_조鮮_선 for the entire peninsula, hinting away at his inherent bias.

According to a Hong Kong podcast 『國情揭露』(“National Conditions Revealed”) summarized a few points from his visit:

_{Before we get to that though, the hosts put in a plug for 鍾祖康(Joe Chung)‘s latest book, 《向中國低文明說不》 (“Say No To China’s Low Culture”), then continued to talk about the results of the annual July 1st protests up until the 8-minute mark.}

Made fun of Xi’s wife, 彭_팽麗_려媛_원(Peng, Li-Yuan), for saying Xi, in his younger days, used to kinda’ look like 도민준 from that TV series mentioned above.
It’s customary for China, before visiting South Korea, to visit the North. Before that happens, the leader of North Korea has to pay a visit to China. So…
…金_김正_정恩_은(Kim, Jong-un) was originally supposed to visit China in June. While Xi was originally scheduled to visit the South in late July or August. However, as Asian customs go, you can’t “visit someone empty-handed” (“空手而來”=”빈손으로 온다”), you have to bear a gift. The gift Xi wanted to see was denuclearization (or maybe resumption of 6-party talks, temporary freeze on nuclear tests, or at least “something” so China can tell the US, “Yeah, we’re working on it!”).
金_김正_정恩_은(Kim, Jong-un) has a bad impression of China. Even though North Korea treats them like a “Big Brother”, North Korea doesn’t seem to get a reciprocal amount of respect.
After having defied everybody, the North suggested to the South that both sides temporarily cease hostilities (暫時取消敵對狀態) all the way up until July 4th. Not out of respect for China, but to remind everyone that North Korea decides the peace of all Northeast Asia, not China or South Korea.
Most of South Korea’s FDI goes to China, but is ranked #5 in overall FDI levels. China is South Korea’s #3 trading partner. Mentioned the need for ROK-PRC economic partnership, as a peaceful economic partnership, as a base for ultimate Asian economic partnership.
China wants to set up a special SEZ for PRC-ROK, and an FTA. This will shove aside Japan. However, South Korea’s worry, is that it’s greatest military ally, the US, will not be happy with this move (due to the US’ alliance with Japan).
China doesn’t deal with North Korea, as it does with regular nations, and is afraid of “spillover” in the case of a DPRK collapse. This is a departure from past idea of “raising a wolf-dog to look after your backdoor”(“養一隻狼狗看守後門”) –North Korea– but this idea is out-of-date, with the development of long-range missiles.