Beijing Four© Update
It also goes nicely with what must be the Chosun Ilbo’s best graphic ever–a cynical, nationalistic, manipulative bit of propaganda, to which I hasten to give my enthusiastic approval. Just as paranoid people have real enemies, good propaganda needs a basis in something that at least appears to be true.
In this case, the article’s basis in truth is the South Korean government’s double standard in its handling of disagreements with China on one hand, and Japan and America on the other. At this moment, it strikes me that even as a teenager, I was more inclined to get belligerent with my brothers than with, say, tow truck drivers, bouncers, or repo men. When was the last time you saw South Korea apply “quiet diplomacy” to disagreements over Tokdo or Yasukuni? I’d hasten to add Yongsan and the SOFA to that list, and press the point that none of the latter issues has killed anyone recently. Yet you’re not going to see a postage stamp commemorating any North Korean refugee who was repatriated by China and swallowed up by the death camps.
The Korea Herald is conveying the GNP’s completely justified (and probably insincere) demands that Korea punish China for its “diplomatic arrogance.” Even the U.S. State Department got in on the act by expressing its “concern.” So as stunts go, the evidence is trickling in that this one was effective. China can either risk more incidents like this, or else it can take the P.R. beating that would come from denying visas to South Korean politicians. Shrewd move by the Beijing Four ©.