China’s maximum pressure campaign on Australia is continuing:
Australia on Monday summoned the Chinese ambassador and demanded an apology after a Chinese Foreign Ministry official tweeted a graphic, computer-generated illustration of a grinning Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child to criticize Australia’s involvement in the war-torn country.
Zhao Lijian, the most prominent of Beijing’s outspoken “wolf warrior” diplomats, was referring in the tweet to an Australian inquiry into alleged war crimes by its soldiers in Afghanistan. As China-Australia relations have plummeted this year, Zhao has sharply criticized Australia in both its economic dealings and its conduct in Afghanistan. Russia, too, has cited Afghanistan as an example of the West’s failings and hypocrisy on the global stage.
An Australian government report, published Nov. 19 after a four-year probe, found “credible information” that 25 special forces soldiers unlawfully killed 39 prisoners, farmers and civilians over several years. More than a dozen soldiers have been dismissed, and the preliminary findings will now be followed up by a special investigator and could result in criminal charges.
Washington Post
You can read more at the link, but obviously this diplomat has little self awareness considering his country is mass incarcerating and disappearing an entire ethnic group. The Australians on the other hand have identified criminal activity, are investigating, and hold those responsible accountable. This is something we will likely never see happen in China.
By the way Zhao is the same person that tried to blame U.S. Soldiers for spreading the coronavirus in Wuhan. With all the misinformation this guy is spreading why doesn’t Twitter ban or censor him like they have done to conservative Twitter users?
This news is an indication of how much the coronavirus has spread throughout the U.S.:
The U.S. Marine Corps announced 72 new cases of the coronavirus Monday on Okinawa, more than the service has reported there in over a month.
All those cases, divided between two bases, were discovered among personnel recently arrived from the United States and still in the 14-day isolation period, Marine Corps Installations Pacific said in a Facebook post.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but with such high numbers I wonder if the Japanese government will eventually ask USFJ to suspend the arrival of new personnel?
No soon after I post an article speculating that South Korea is pursuing a policy of neutrality here comes President Moon’s trial balloon expert advocating for this exact policy:
South Korea should work together with Australia, Canada and Japan to form regional economic or security frameworks so as to create a new order free from the burden of choosing sides between the United States and China, an adviser to President Moon Jae-in said Friday.
Moon Chung-in, special foreign policy and security adviser, made the remarks during a virtual seminar, stressing that it is very unlikely the tensions between Washington and Beijing will get any better under the next U.S. administration of Joe Biden.
“The Biden administration will be using a softer tone, but the policy will be as tough as Trump’s. There will be a tougher American encirclement of China, although he might be more selective in terms of technology and economy,” he said in the seminar hosted by the Korean Association for Public Diplomacy.
“That will put us in an extremely difficult position. It will restore the old ‘bloc diplomacy’ … in the form of a new Cold War,” he said.
Moon added that a worsening of U.S.-China tensions will make it difficult to resolve the North Korea issue peacefully.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the Cold War era strategy worked and served South Korea’s national interest very well.
For anyone that has been to Ulleung-do, they will know this will be a difficult construction project considering the topography and sea states that surround the island:
Construction has begun on an airport in Ulleung Island in North Gyeongsang Province, which will cut down travel time from Seoul from the current seven hours to just one.
A ground-breaking ceremony took place Friday attended by Ulleung Governor Kim Byeong-su and a hundred other local and central government officials.
Ulleong Island is located in the East Sea, some 120 kilometers from mainland South Korea. The Ulleong Country administrative area includes the Dokdo Islets.
Once finished, Ulleung Airport will mainly service small aircraft with fewer than 50 seats. Local authorities expect it will increase annual tourist numbers to the remote island to one million, likely boosting the number of people taking sightseeing tours to the Dokdo Islets as well.
KBS World Radio
You can read more at the link, but I am not a big fan of the airstrip because Ulleung-do is one of the few areas in Korea that is not over run with tourists due to the boat trip currently required to get there. It just seems the small coastal road that goes around the island is going to have a hard time supporting all the tourists coming in.
Kim Jong-un is supposedly feeling the pressure of sanctions and the pandemic which if true only increases the odds of him starting a provocation cycle out once the new U.S. Presidential administration takes power:
Anchor: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is reported to have had at least two people executed in an irrational response to the combined pressure of sanctions, COVID-19 and flood damage. That’s according to lawmakers who attended the National Intelligence Service’s briefing to the parliamentary intelligence committee on Friday.
Kim Bum-soo has more.Report:
[Sound bite: Rep. Ha Tae-keung – People Power Party (Korean-English translation)]
“Kim Jong-un is displaying an excessive anger and taking irrational measures [over the pandemic and its economic impact].”South Korea’s intelligence agency says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is responding “irrationally” to the economic difficulties the regime is facing, such as inflation and a decline in industrial activity.
According to Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the parliamentary intelligence committee, the National Intelligence Service(NIS) reported the situation to lawmakers on Friday, including details of the recent execution of a foreign currency changer in Pyongyang.
[Sound bite: Rep. Ha Tae-keung – People Power Party (Korean-English translation)]
“For example, North Korea executed a high-profile money changer in Pyongyang in late October after holding the person responsible for falling exchange rates… Other irrational measures include North Korea banning fishing and salt production at sea to prevent sea water from being infected with the virus.”Sources explained the North Korean won-dollar exchange rate has fallen as Pyongyang banned the use of the U.S. dollar at home in a bid to curtail inflation.
North Korean people can no longer spend U.S. dollars to purchase smuggled goods either due to the strict Sino-North Korea border closure amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Rep. Ha quoted the intelligence agency as saying that another key official was also executed in August for violating a ban on imports amid toughened quarantine control measures caused by the pandemic.
KBS World Radio
You can read more at the link.
