Category: China

Here is China needlessly raising tensions with South Korea trying to treat them like a vassal state:

Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming (L) speaks with Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, before their dinner meeting at the envoy’s residence in Seoul on June 8, 2023. (Yonhap)

China called in South Korean Ambassador Chung Jae-ho and lodged a complaint, Beijing’s foreign ministry said Sunday, in a tit-for-tat after the Chinese ambassador to Seoul was summoned over remarks warning Seoul against betting against China.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Nong Rong met with the South Korean envoy on Saturday and expressed serious concerns and a complaint over what it called an unfair response that South Korea showed about a meeting between Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming and opposition leader Lee Jae-myung.

Xing said during Thursday’s meeting with Lee, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, that it is a wrong bet to believe that China will lose in the rivalry with the United States. He also warned that “those betting on China’s defeat will certainly regret it later.”

On Friday, South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin called in Xing and “sternly warned” against the envoy’s “unreasonable and provocative” remarks. Chang also warned Xing’s remarks could be seen as interference of South Korea’s domestic politics.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

China continues to economically retaliate against South Korea as trilateral security cooperation between the U.S. and Japan improves:

Person holding a cellphone with logo of Naver on screen [SHUTTERSTOCK]

Korea’s largest portal Naver has been blocked in China at a tricky time when the United States and its allies are presenting a more united front against Beijing and Beijing is pushing back.  

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that it is looking into the case with other government agencies.  

“We are aware of the related reports. [The ministry] is checking the matter jointly with related government agencies,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk on Tuesday.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

If China would quit threatening Taiwan with naval blockades and firing missiles over the country than the U.S. would not need to send personnel to help train them in the first place:

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) conducts a routine Taiwan Strait transit on April 16, 2023. (U.S. Navy)

China warned against continued U.S.-Taiwan cooperation Wednesday, responding to reports that the U.S. military was sending officers to help train Taiwan’s counterparts and that a delegation of defense contractors would visiting the self-ruled island next week.

“We resolutely oppose the U.S. having any form of official or military contact with China’s Taiwan region,” Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a weekly press briefing in Beijing.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon did not even mention anything about the One China Policy, only that the status quo should stay in place with Taiwan, in other words he does not want a major war in the region. For China advocating against a major war in the region is considered meddling:

The foreign ministry strongly denounced China for committing a “serious diplomatic discourtesy” Thursday after a Chinese official branded President Yoon Suk Yeol’s recent comments on Taiwan as a verbal meddling by others. 

The ministry issued the statement after the Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said earlier in the day Beijing would not allow others to meddle by word, in reference to Yoon’s media interview the previous day in which he expressed opposition to any change in the status quo of the Taiwan Strait by force. 

Wang also called on Seoul to adhere to the “One China” policy under the spirit of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, saying solving the Taiwan issue is solely a matter of China’s own affairs. 

Seoul’s foreign ministry said Wang’s comments were “unspeakable.” 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear that China is trying to send a message to South Korea that war with Taiwan is coming and they better stay out of it.

I hope what is going on in Ukraine right now is motivating the Taiwanese to do more to improve their own defensive posture because these leaked documents make it sound like they have a lot of work to do:

Taiwan is unlikely to thwart Chinese military air superiority in a cross-strait conflict, while tactics such as China’s use of civilian ships for military purposes have eroded U.S. spy agencies’ ability to detect a pending invasion, according to leaked Pentagon assessments that contain troubling details about the self-governed island’s ability to fend off war.

The assessments state that Taiwan officials doubt their air defenses can “accurately detect missile launches,” that barely more than half of Taiwan’s aircraft are fully mission capable and that moving the jets to shelters would take at least a week – a huge problem if China launched missiles before Taiwan had a chance to disperse those planes.

The classified documents addressing a potential conflict suggest China’s air force would have a much better shot at establishing early control of the skies – a strategy that Taipei itself believes will underpin an attack – than Russia did in Ukraine.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

China spent the weekend trying to intimidate Taiwan:

China sent warships and dozens of fighter jets toward Taiwan on Saturday, the Taiwanese government said, in retaliation for a meeting between the U.S. House of Representatives speaker and the president of the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory.

The Chinese military announced the start of three-day “combat readiness patrols” as a warning to Taiwanese who want to make the island’s de facto independence permanent. The People’s Liberation Army gave no indication whether they might include a repeat of previous exercises with missiles fired into the sea, which disrupted shipping and airline flights.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy held talks with President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday in California, adding to a series of foreign lawmakers who have met Tsai to show support in the face of Chinese intimidation. Beijing responded Friday by imposing a travel ban and financial sanctions against American groups and individuals associated with Tsai’s U.S. visit.

On Saturday, eight warships and 42 planes were detected near Taiwan, 29 of which flew across the middle line of the strait that separates it from the mainland, the island’s Ministry of Defense said. It said they included Chengdu J-10, Shenyang J-11 and Shenyang J-16 jet fighters.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

President Obrador actually brings up good points, but it is laughable to think his letter is going to stop the fentanyl exports from China. I personally believe the fentanyl exports from China is part of their grand strategy to weaken the U.S. from within. They saw this happen to them during the Opium Wars and it was a widely successful strategy for the British to weaken China in the early to mid 1800’s. They are simply implementing this same strategy on the U.S. now:

On Tuesday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked China for help curbing Mexico’s production of fentanyl, despite his claim last month that Mexico neither produces nor consumes the drug.

López Obrador has previously expressed outrage with lawmakers from the U.S. putting the blame at Mexico’s feet and suggesting U.S. military intervention. He continued to vent his frustrations Tuesday in a letter to Chinese president Xi Jinping.

“Unjustly, they are blaming us for problems that in large measure have to do with their loss of values, their welfare crisis,” he wrote to Xi, as quoted in the Associated Press. “These positions are in themselves a lack of respect and a threat to our sovereignty, and moreover they are based on an absurd, manipulative, propagandistic and demagogic attitude.”

However, López Obrador also brought up Chinese exports of fentanyl precursors that are ending up in the hands of the cartels.

National Review

You can read more at the link.