City of Changchun rolls out propaganda subway train dedicated to the political doctrine of Xi Jinping. The municipal government described the train as a “highly condensed spiritual manual” of “Xi Jinping Thought.” https://t.co/Jc9Nwoap4V pic.twitter.com/z6LAaFP2N2
— Eric Fish (@ericfish85) March 25, 2019
This wants again has the appearance of the Korean government trying “to do something”:
President Moon Jae-in will seek measures with the Chinese government to tackle fine dust pollution here, a Cheong Wa Dae spokesman said Wednesday.
Korea Times
Moon ordered the government to “discuss with the Chinese government to come up with contingencies to minimize the impact of the fine dust,” according to presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom, Wednesday.
Moon said the two countries need to discuss joint dust-reducing measures, creating artificial rain over waters between the two countries and launching a fine dust forecast system.
Citing China’s claim that fine dust from Korea drifts into Shanghai, Moon said, “making artificial rain over the Yellow Sea would help the Chinese side as well.”
Noh Young-min, presidential chief of staff who served as ambassador to China until recently, said “Beijing is bigger than the combined size of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, but creates a massive artificial rain from dawn to night in the city.”
You can read more at the link, but I am confident that most ROK Heads realize that the Chinese government is not going to do anything to help pollution over Seoul. In fact if you read the article carefully the Chinese government is blaming the ROK for pollution over China!
The artificial rain idea the ROK government has been trying for years with no success. Yet the ROK Presidential chief of staff claims that the Chinese are doing this from dawn to night in Beijing. A quick look at a 14 day weather report for Beijing shows no to little chance of forecasted rain despite all the fine dust pollution.
It has been speculated that the Trump administration would agree to end the Korean War and it appears that is the direction Trump-Kim II Summit negotiations are going:
President Moon Jae-in and Chinese President Xi Jinping may join the summit to be held between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this month in Vietnam to declare an end to the Korean War.
Korea Times
As U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun stated last week, President Trump is open to formally ending the war as part of measures to spur denuclearization talks with North Korea. This is an idea Moon, Xi and Kim have all been supporting.
One major obstacle was North Korea’s opposition to the continued presence of U.S. troops in South Korea. However, the North has reportedly changed its stance on this.
U.S. and South Korean officials said ending the Korean War is a major topic in the ongoing pre-summit talks in Pyongyang.
You can read more a the link, but I have said this repeatedly, North Korea does not have to call for a withdrawal of US troops when its surrogates in South Korea will do it for them.
Anti-US leftist groups will claim that a peace treaty calls into question why US troops are needed in Korea. Two of the largest anti-US leftist groups, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and Minbyun-Lawyers for a Democratic Society are already advancing this idea.
The PSPD and Minbyun are both extreme left wing pro-Pyongyang organization that have long been anti-US. For example PSPD is one of the groups behind the ongoing THAAD protests, blamed the US for Christian missionaries kidnapped by the Taliban, was a member of the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA that even had one of their own set himself on fire outside one of the FTA meetings in Seoul. PSPD was also one of the lead organizations against the relocation of US forces to Camp Humphreys.
Minbyun on the other hand, have been used to legally attack North Korean defectors, one of the groups behind the US beef riots, and have long attacked the USFK relocation plan.
I would not be surprised that these groups and other large anti-US leftist groups eventually mobilize to protest and blockade US military bases to disrupt operations and make life miserable for US servicemembers in Korea. The THAAD site is already experiencing this.
If the traffic at Camp Humphreys is already bad can you imagine what would happen if people had to deal with protesters as well while trying to get through the gates?
The protests combined with the ROK government playing hardball on USFK cost sharing would be intended to convince President Trump to withdraw some if not all of the US troops. This is why North Korea doesn’t have to call for US troop withdrawals when they have surrogates to do it for them.
It looks like this experiment will have to go back to the drawing board for some more refinement:
South Korea has experimented with artificial rainfall off its west coast to assess the technique’s efficiency in mitigating fine dust.
KBS World Radio
According to the Korea Meteorological Administration(KMA), in the experiment jointly conducted with the Environment Ministry, silver iodide was spread in the air above the West Sea around 120 kilometers away from Gunsan in North Jeolla Province for about an hour from 10:13 a.m. on Friday.
No rain or snow was detected in the areas where the chemical materials were expected to induce precipitation. Only a light drizzle was observed near Yeonggwang in South Jeolla Province.
In order to achieve substantial mitigation of fine dust via rain, heavy rainfall of ten millimeters per hour or more is needed for at least two hours.
You can read more at the link, but what I find interesting about all this is that the South Korean leftists will protest the US over oil contamnination they cannot even confirm is happening from Yongsan Garrison. However, the Chinese pollute the entire peninsula with fine dust to the point the ROK needs to create artificial rain to stop it and has anyone seen any of the leftists protesting this?
China is trying to send a message against US military patrols in the South China Sea region:
Analysts gave the DF-26 its foreboding “Guam Killer” nickname for its ability to strike targets 3,400 miles away, which is within range of Andersen Air Force Base.
Stars & Stripes
China mobilized the missile after the USS McCampbell guided-missile destroyer on Jan. 7 sailed near the Paracel Islands in a freedom-of-navigation exercise. The Paracels are claimed by China; however, that claim is not recognized by international law.
The Thursday CCTV report came the same day the United States sent the McCampbell and fleet replenishment oiler USNS Walter S. Diehl through the Taiwan Strait on a freedom-of-navigation operation.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson has said China should not consider such actions provocative, but Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Friday used an analogy to explain Beijing’s discomfort with the passage.
“Suppose that a family has two courtyards … divided by a passage which could be used by passersby to come through for convenience’s sake,” Hua said in an official translation of her Friday press conference. “If there is someone who frequents this passage just to issue provocative words or make provocative moves … then how would you feel?”
You can read more at the link, but in regards to the Chinese analogy at the end, the passerby through the courtyard is only making provocative messages because a family forcibly took over a number of courtyards. Additionally the rogue family is looking to take over more courtyards from the friends of the person passing by. The person continuously passing by is a discouragement to that family from trying to take over even more courtyards.
No shocker here:
The thick smog that blanketed most of the country over the weekend was largely from pollutants from China, the JoongAng Ilbo reported exclusively Thursday after analyzing the Korean and Chinese governments’ data on fine dust movements in the atmosphere.
Joong Ang Ilbo
The paper analyzed the Air Quality Index (AQI) in cities and regions in China put out by the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the PM2.5 fine dust levels across Korea put out by the Korean Ministry of Environment’s National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER).
It found that rises and falls in the AQI in China were mirrored in the levels of PM2.5 in the atmosphere over Korea last week.
You can read more at the link.
I wonder if this Chinese envoy realizes the irony of his statement when China currently has tens of thousands of ethnic Uighur in internment camps because they are Muslims:
Chinese ambassador Lu Shaye has accused Canada of applying a double standard, and has decried what he sees as “Western egotism and white supremacy” in the treatment of detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
Globe and Mail
China’s envoy to Canada penned a Jan. 9 column in The Hill Times, a twice-weekly Ottawa publication that focuses on parliamentary affairs, in which he harshly criticizes Canada for demanding the release of two jailed Canadians while detaining Ms. Meng.
“It’s understandable that these Canadians are concerned about their own citizens. But have they shown any concern or sympathy for [Ms.] Meng after she was illegally detained and deprived of freedom?” Mr. Lu wrote.
China has imprisoned former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor in what appears to be retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Ms. Meng for extradition to the United States to face allegations of bank fraud related to U.S. sanctions on Iran.
You can read more at the link.
#XiJinping did not "invite" #KimJongUn, he summoned him. Kim rulers brag they are Korean nationalists, but they act like vassals to the Chinese. Xi pulled the string, and Fatty the Third came running to Beijing. Kim has gone to China four times, and Xi has gone to Korea no times. https://t.co/oGHHaYxXNH
— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) January 8, 2019
Kim Jong-un has finished getting his marching orders from Emperor President Xi and is on his way back home:
After holding meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has left Beijing and is now headed for Pyongyang aboard his special train. Kim is expected to have coordinated strategies with Xi ahead of his envisioned meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
KBS World Radio
Kim Bum-soo has more.
Report: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping for about an hour on Tuesday.
After their fourth summit, Xi hosted a banquet for Kim which lasted for more than four hours. Tuesday is believed to be Kim’s 35th birthday.
On Wednesday, Kim and Xi are believed to have met again for a luncheon at a hotel in Beijing.
You can read more at the link.
Can’t make this up: China invites foreign journalists into internment camps in Xinjiang to hear detainees sing English rendition of “If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands.” https://t.co/BXONJcquaa
— Ely Ratner (@elyratner) January 6, 2019
