The Manseok pier in South Korea’s western port city of Incheon is jam-packed with Chinese fishing boats on June 14, 2016. All the ships have been seized by the South Korean Coast Guard while illegally catching fish in the country’s territorial waters near the inter-Korean sea border in the West Sea. Illegal fishing by Chinese fishermen is a years-long troublesome issue in the country as it has severely damaged the livelihood of South Korean fishermen. (Yonhap)
ROK Drop favorite Andrei Lankov has an opinion piece in the Korea Times that explains how China’s supposed harsh line with North Korea was merely a short term fluctuation and things are back to normal between the two countries:
For a brief while, South Korean diplomats were in a rather celebratory mood: it looked like China, for a change, had joined the ROK and the U.S. in their efforts to subject North Korea to the toughest sanctions ever. Indeed, in early March the Chinese representative in the U.N. Security Council voted for Resolution 2270 which introduced such measures, and for a while the united front looked like a reality.
Frankly, for yours truly, it was a surprise: the harsh position Beijing had seemingly committed itself to was unprecedented, and China’s switch happened quite suddenly. However, now it seems that this change was merely a short-term fluctuation.
There are many signs of a warming of relations between China and North Korea. In early June, Ri Su-yong, the former North Korean foreign minister who currently is the Korean Workers’ Party vice-chairman responsible for foreign relations, visited Beijing. It is the first time since 2013 that a North Korean official of such high rank has appeared in the Chinese capital. Among other things, Ri was granted an audience with President Xi Jinping. It lasted merely 20 minutes and therefore was, first and foremost, a formality, but it still had much symbolic meaning. It is equally important that the Chinese media devoted much space to describing the visit.
Simultaneously, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman expressed dissatisfaction with the new U.S. policy initiative ― unilateral sanctions, targeting banks that deal with North Korea. On the other hand, the U.S. authorities subpoenaed Huawei, a massive Chinese telecommunication company, for its alleged deals with North Korea. There is also a growing body of evidence that China is not being as strict with sanctions’ enforcement as many had hoped for.
There is nothing surprising about all this. Like it or not, when it comes to the Korean Peninsula, Chinese interests are seriously different from those of the United States. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but like I have always said China is never going to take a position that would risk the stability of the Kim regime. As bad as the regime is, to the Chinese government it is better than the alternative of regime collapse and the unification of the peninsula under South Korean rule backed with US troops.
This incident involving a Chinese fishing boat shows the very dangerous situation that could have materialized along the inter-Korean Northern Limit Line (NLL) because the Chinese government absolutely refuses to control their fishermen:
Incheon Coast Guard chase a Chinese fishing vessel to seize it for violating South Korea’s territorial waters off Yeonpyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea, on Saturday. The Chinese vessel blockaded its wheelhouse and tried to flee by sailing north with South Korean Coast Guard officials still on board. [NEWSIS]A Chinese vessel illegally fishing off Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea was seized by Incheon Coast Guard – but not before trying to flee with Korean officers still on board.
A 50-ton Chinese boat illegally caught some 45 kilograms (99 pounds) of crab and small fish in waters 8.6 kilometers (5.3 miles) to the south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas, at around 4:40 p.m. Saturday afternoon, according to the Incheon Coast Guard Sunday. This was in violation of Korea’s exclusive economic zone.
During the raid, 14 Korean Coast Guard officers boarded the Chinese fishing vessel to seize it.
But Chinese sailors blockaded the wheelhouse and tried to take off with the Coast Guard officers still on board. They managed to sail around 1 kilometer to the north before control was seized.
This led to the arrest of all seven Chinese sailors on board, who were transported to Incheon.
Had the South Korean Coast Guard crossed over into North Korean waters, it could have given Pyongyang a pretext for some form of retaliation. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if the Chinese government puts out some statement trying to put blame on the Korean Coast Guard for the incident. I have always believed that these fishermen need to be jailed and their boats auctioned off as a deterrent to this activity. These Chinese fishermen have not only injured and murdered Korean Coast Guard personnel in the past, but now they are even threatening to start a war with North Korea.
Members of a special maritime unit train ahead of their deployment at the western border island of Yeonpyeong on June 8, 2016, to fend off Chinese boats fishing illegally in South Korean waters. The unit has been bolstered in size to deal with the growing problem of Chinese fishing boats encroaching into South Korea’s waters. A Seoul official said the government on the same day protested to Beijing about the violations. (Photo provided by the Incheon branch of the Korea Coast Guard) (Yonhap)
It will be interesting to see how this plays out because it appears that the Chinese are all in, in regards to their South China Sea claims, is the US and its regional allies all in as well to deter them?
As a rising power, China is roughly charting the same course the Americans and Soviets did 50 years ago. China has land-based missiles, bombers, and missile submarines. And China is establishing its own bastion — in the South China Sea. This sea grab is a logical response to China’s strategic dilemma.
China’s coming submarine deployment is allegedly in response to the deployment of the American THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea. While it is true that the U.S. is deploying THAAD on the Korean peninsula, the system can only be used against missiles targeting South Korea — coming from China’s ally, North Korea. China’s explanation is designed to make Beijing look like the victim. But China, which has its main submarine missile base adjacent to the South China Sea, has been preparing to sail its missile submarines there for years.
China’s aggression in the South China Sea is not likely merely for aggression’s sake, or the result of a rising power feeling its oats. China is acting out of strategic necessity, something even more dangerous because it feels it is doing something because it must, not simply because it can. The ruling Chinese Communist Party has made the calculation that the strategic benefits — having a safe location for its nuclear missile submarines — outweighs the negative attention the country is receiving worldwide.
What does that mean? It means that Beijing is not going to back down. Chinese nuclear weapons, which are the ultimate guarantor of Communist Party rule, are involved, and anything crucial to the survival of the regime is non-negotiable. Barring a new nuclear strategy — perhaps one that rules out submarines and relies on land-based missiles hidden in tunnels — controlling the sea is a must. Beijing has access to other stretches of the Pacific, but they can be easily accessed by traditional rivals including Taiwan and Japan. The South China Sea, for example, is adjacent to a number of relatively poor, weak states. [The Week]
The Chinese television commercial shows a black man apparently doing painting work inside a home covered in paint. He begins to whistle at the Chinese woman in the house who is flirting wth him. The Chinese woman puts a laundry detergent pack in his mouth before grabbing the black man and throwing him into the washing machine. Afterwards she opens the washing machine and instead of a black man coming out a clean handsome Chinese man comes out. You can watch the video below:
This doesn’t surprise me, but the laundry detergent company said they intentionally made this advertisement to be provocative:
Xu Chunyan, an agent for Qiaobi based in the Suzhou, China, told the Times that the ad was meant to be provocative.
“We did this for some sensational effect,” she told the newspaper. “If we just show laundry like all the other advertisements, ours will not stand out.” [Miami Herald]
For those not familiar with China racism is not a big issue with them and this commercial is definitely racist. However, in the age of the Internet commercials like this can no longer just remain with a domestic audience. With that said what affect will the blowback on the Internet really have any affect on the company if they are strictly targeting the Chinese audience? Since their goal was to stand out to their domestic audience, the controversy on the Internet is probably only going to help their sales if anything because of the increased attention. Plus I just don’t expect a big movement with China to develop as a backlash against this company that would impact their sales any way.
Ri Su-yong, a vice chairman of the central committee under North Korea’s ruling Workers Party of Korea, is seen inside a car after arriving at Beijing’s international airport on May 31, 2016, in this photo released by Kyodo News. (Yonhap)
