Category: China

General Minihan does offer a plausible scenario on why 2025 would be a good time for China to attack Taiwan:

China could be at war with the United States two years from now, a top Air Force general predicted in a bombastic and unusual memo to troops under his command, asserting a significantly shorter timeline before potential conflict than any other senior U.S. defense official to date.

Gen. Michael A. Minihan, who as head of Air Mobility Command oversees the service’s fleet of transport and refueling aircraft, warned personnel to speed their preparations for a potential conflict, citing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s aspirations and the possibility that Americans will not be paying attention until it is too late.

“I hope I am wrong,” Minihan wrote. “My gut tells me we will fight in 2025. Xi secured his third term and set his war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason. United States’ presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a distracted America. Xi’s team, reason, and opportunity are all aligned for 2025.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Not a good look for the Chinese government, but obviously they have long ago quit caring what the ROK thinks of them. They just look at the ROK as a country they can bully which they are attempting to do so again:

China announced the suspension Tuesday of its short-term visa service for South Koreans in retaliation against Seoul’s regulations on entries from the neighbor with increasing COVID-19 infections.

The Chinese Embassy in Seoul made public the decision in a post on its WeChat account, citing an “instruction” from Beijing for its embassy and consulates to stop issuing visas, including visits for trade, tourism and medical care purposes.

China plans to “adjust” the measure in accordance with the situation in which South Korea cancels its “discriminatory entry restrictions against China,” the embassy said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but fortunately there is probably few South Koreans that want to travel to China at this time.

It should come as know surprise that the secret Chinese police base is being run out of a restaurant in the same building housing China’s state broadcaster CCTV:

A Chinese restaurant in southern Seoul suspected of being operated as a base for a secret Chinese police station in Korea was found to have opened another branch office right in front of the National Assembly building in Yeouido, western Seoul.  
   
The company opened the office in a nine-story building located on a road directly in front of the National Assembly building in December 2020, according to a certificate of registry information on the restaurant’s operator obtained by the JoongAng Ilbo.  
   
A total of seven businesses were in operation in the building, the JoongAng Ilbo confirmed Friday. 

wo Chinese media-related companies were located in the building: a Chinese media-related office and the Seoul bureau office of China Central Television (CCTV) were on the ninth floor. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This would not be surprising at all if the Chinese had a secret police station in South Korea. I would assume though they would be running it out of their embassy to avoid detection:

Seoul is looking into the alleged presence of a secret Chinese police station in Korea, the Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday.  
   
“We have been communicating with relevant departments on the matter,” a Foreign Ministry official told the press in Seoul on Tuesday. “At this point we do not have anything significant to share.”  
   
The nongovernmental human rights organization Safeguard Defenders announced earlier this month that China’s local-level public security bureau based in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, was running at least one police station in Korea, though it couldn’t confirm its exact location. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but these secret police stations are suspected in 53 nations are and are used to monitor Chinese nationals in these countries.

It looks like China is experiencing what most of the world already went through one to two years ago. The protests must have been a shock to the CCP to so quickly drop their prior COVID Zero policy:

Beijing’s rapidly spreading COVID outbreak has turned the Chinese capital of 22 million people into a virtual ghost town as stores close and restaurants empty, underscoring the cost of President Xi Jinping’s sudden pivot away from COVID zero.

Bucking expectations for a managed and gradual transition, Xi’s government is now allowing the virus to run rampant. While officials have abandoned efforts to track case numbers, anecdotal evidence suggests entire families and offices in Beijing have become infected in the span of just days — a potential harbinger of worse things to come in other parts of China with less-developed health care systems.

Beijing residents are hunkering down at home, either because they’re scared of catching the virus or because they already have it. While many grocery stores are still open to provide essentials, delivery services for food and other goods are facing delays with workers out sick. The retrenchment suggests China’s economy is likely to get worse before the benefits of exiting COVID zero start to kick in next year.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This will be a big summit for President Yoon when it gets scheduled. It will be interesting if THAAD will be a talking point for President Xi when this summit happens:

The foreign ministers of South Korea and China agreed to strengthen bilateral diplomatic ties, Monday, as the two countries seek to hold high-level exchanges, including a summit in Seoul, “in the new era of cooperation.”

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Park Jin and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi held a virtual meeting and agreed to “maintain exchange momentum” for President Yoon Suk-yeol and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping following their first summit in Bali, Indonesia, last month.

The top diplomats said they will work together to honor what was agreed upon during the previous summit and to possibly hold a second one in South Korea, but did not elaborate.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.