Category: China

The man who led China after the Tianamen Square massacre has died ironically at the same time new protests against the CCP have taken hold and are being violently crushed:

Jiang Zemin, who led China out of isolation after the army crushed the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989 and supported economic reforms that led to a decade of explosive growth, died Wednesday. He was 96.

Jiang, who was president for a decade until 2003 and led the ruling Communist Party for 13 years until 2002, died of leukemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai, state media reported. The party declared him a “great proletarian revolutionary” and ”long-tested communist fighter.”

Jiang’s death comes after the party faced its most widespread public show of opposition in decades when crowds called for leader Xi Jinping to resign during weekend protests against anti-virus controls that are confining millions of people to their homes.

A surprise choice to lead a divided Communist Party after the 1989 turmoil, Jiang saw China through history-making changes including a revival of market-oriented reforms, the return of Hong Kong from British rule in 1997 and Beijing’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Chinese President Emperor Xi appears uninterested in helping South Korea reign in North Korea’s provocations which shows China has probably green lighted them to do them:

President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday showed subtle differences in their perceptions toward North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. 

During the first Seoul-Beijing summit held in nearly three years, President Yoon called for China to play an “active and constructive role” in reining in North Korea to stop its provocations amid its continued launches of various missiles, despite international condemnation. 

In response, the Chinese leader urged South Korea to find its role and do as much as it can in order to get inter-Korean relations back on the right track.

According to South Korea’s presidential office, Yoon and Xi sat down for talks for 25 minutes on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting was first of its kind since Dec. 23, 2019, when Yoon’s predecessor Moon Jae-in and Xi met on the sidelines of a trilateral summit between South Korea, China and Japan in Beijing.

During the summit, Yoon voiced worries that North Korea is waging unprecedented provocations with its missile launches and being set for another nuclear test, and asked China, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a neighboring country, to play an “active and constructive role.”

In response, Xi said that both South Korea and China have “common interests on the issues of the Korean Peninsula” and he hopes South Korea will do its part to improve inter-Korean relations actively.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Its official, Xi has pretty much made himself an emperor for life in China:

President Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader in decades, increased his dominance Sunday when he was named to another term as head of the ruling Communist Party in a break with tradition and promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the struggling economy.

Xi, who took power in 2012, was awarded a third five-year term as general secretary, discarding a custom under which his predecessor left after 10 years. The 69-year-old leader is expected by some to try to stay in power for life.

The party also named a seven-member Standing Committee, its inner circle of power, dominated by Xi allies after Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader and an advocate of market-style reform and private enterprise, was dropped from the leadership Saturday. That was despite Li being a year younger than the party’s informal retirement age of 68.

“Power will be even more concentrated in the hands of Xi Jinping,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Chinese politics expert at Hong Kong Baptist University. The new appointees are “all loyal to Xi,” he said. “There is no counterweight or checks and balances in the system at all.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

if this is the way the Chinese want to act maybe NATO countries should all start denying the use of their airspace to Chinese government officials:

Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak’s planned visit to Seoul was canceled as China rejected the Polish government jet’s flight plan through its airspace.

According to officials, Blaszczak was scheduled to have a meeting with South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup here on Tuesday, but they ended up having a videoconference on Wednesday instead. He also missed the release ceremonies for weapons purchased recently by Poland in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. 

Blaszczak and his delegation were supposed to use the Polish government’s jet to fly to Seoul via a direct air route over China. But China refused to allow the Polish delegation’s jet to enter its airspace. The Polish side reportedly considered using other air routes, but didn’t, as they would have required refueling and consumed too much time. 

Though the South Korean government did not elaborate on the background for the decision, it is speculated that China did not permit Poland’s jet to fly through its airspace because of its relationship with Russia and Seoul’s closer relations with NATO countries. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

You would think this retaliation against Korean businesses for deploying a defense weapon system in response to a country backed by Beijing making nuclear threats would cause Korean businesses to want to completely abandon China. Well despite all this retaliation many Korean businesses still want to do business with China:

Korea is still suffering from the impact of China’s economic retaliation due to its decision to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system in 2016.   

Among local retailers, Lotte was most affected by China’s wrath, as the Thaad battery was temporarily deployed on a golf course owned by Lotte Corporation.  

Lotte Shopping had 110 Lotte Mart branches in China in 2016. Seventy-four were slapped with business suspensions for failing to meet local regulations, but forced to stay shut for a year as the Chinese government refused to make re-inspection visits. 

With growing anti-Korean sentiment, the company withdrew all Lotte Marts from China in 2018. According to Lotte Shopping, its estimated loss of the Lotte Mart business in 2017 due to Thaad amounted to 1.2 trillion won.  

Fallout from the Thaad row continued with Lotte Shopping shutting down its five Lotte Department Store branches in the country one-by-one. The last remaining branch closed in August.  

Emart had six branches in China, but shut them all down in 2017.  

The cosmetics industry was also devastated, with Amorepacific being hit the hardest. The company’s net profit in 2017 fell 39.7 percent on year to 489.5 billion won, with revenue dropping 10 percent on year to 6.03 trillion won.  

The Chinese government banned all group travel to Korea through early 2018. Chinese tourists to Korea in 2017 dropped 48.3 percent on year to 4.17 million. Net profit dropped 39.7 percent on year in 2017 to 489.5 billion won and revenue fell 10 percent on year to 6.03 trillion won.  

Retailers have mostly recovered, with many of them opening more branches in Southeast Asia rather than China in an attempt to avoid anymore political risks.   

However, many still heavily rely on China for exports, which could leave Korean companies caught up in the middle again as tensions between the United States and China escalate due to the Inflation Reduction Act.The act aims to give tax credits for electric vehicle (EV) batteries with components sourced from either the United States or countries it has free trade agreements with.    

The change is forcing Korea to make a choice between losing tax credits in a huge market, or cutting ties with Chinese suppliers. Most EV battery materials are imported from China, with some 84 percent of lithium hydroxide imports and 81 percent on cobalt imports coming from China between January and July.   

There is also the chance for a recurrence of a dispute over Thaad, as President Yoon Suk-yeol has denied China’s request to not make any additional Thaad deployments.    

“If the current administration decides to deploy additional units of Thaad, it can increase anti-Korea sentiment in China and there could be additional retaliatory measures like last time, even hindering post-pandemic recoveries of the current duty-free and cosmetics sectors,” said Park Jong-dae, an analyst at Hana Investment & Securities. “But things are a bit different now considering a lot of cosmetics sales shifted online, which could allow consumers to make purchases despite the political clashes.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link on how Korean dramas and video games are also being hit hard by Chinese retaliation.