Category: China

You can read the whole article at the link, but I would speculate that China has been playing the “North Korea card” for years considering they have done little to nothing to stop North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs:

– China could exercise a veto against any new U.N. sanctions on North Korea, ignore existing sanctions and even accept the communist neighbor as a nuclear state if the incoming administration of Donald Trump plays the “Taiwan card,” a U.S. expert said.

Trump sparked China’s anger by accepting a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen earlier this month in breach of the decades-long diplomatic tradition that the U.S. has kept under its “One China” policy since severing ties with Taiwan and normalizing relations with Beijing.

China considers Taiwan a renegade province that must be unified with the mainland and rails against any support for Taiwan’s independence or the notion that the island is not part of the country. Despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. has maintained friendly relations with Taiwan.

On Sunday, Trump went a step further, saying he doesn’t understand “why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.” The remark suggests Trump could use the Taiwan card in dealings with Beijing.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

I wonder if this is a loan shark tactic that has come to Korea yet?:

It is an open secret that some online finance service platforms are asking female debtors to give them nude photos in exchange for a loan, or to extend the deadline of debt payment. Now, with the leaking of female debtors’ nude photos and videos online — thanks to the circulation of a 10-gigabytes file on the Chinese internet — the alarm has been sounded.

The zipped file contains photos and sex tapes of at least 161 women, the majority of which are college students between 17 to 23 years of age. Along with the visual materials are chat records and identity information — including relatives’ names and personal particulars.

The leaked documents come from Jiedaibao, a social network-based, online finance service platform, which facilitates one-on-one loans. Debtors must use their real identity in their profile, while the lenders can remain anonymous. The finance company has issued a statement denouncing any involvement with the leak, and is reportedly cooperating fully with the police in the investigation.

In order to get a loan, the young women were asked to take nude selfies holding their identity card; some were even asked to masturbate in front of the camera. In addition to this, other documents were shown — include student identity cards, and screenshots of university student user platforms.  [Global Voices]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Japanese pop culture is filling the vacuum caused by the K-Pop ban in China caused by the THAAD dispute:

China has become hostile toward South Korea’s entertainment content but is welcoming to cultural products from Japan despite its strained political ties with both countries, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

Relations between China and South Korea took a hit earlier this year after Seoul announced the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on its soil. While South Korea and the U.S. argued the system would only be used to deter North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats, China protested the move as a serious threat to its security interests.

In the months that followed, a number of South Korean celebrities were reportedly forced to cancel their scheduled events in China, while various South Korean TV programs and films had to postpone their release in the country.

“Judging from what I’ve determined through various channels, the ban on Korean cultural products appears to be real,” said one source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Chinese broadcasters have not only banned the appearance of South Korean entertainers but also taken down commercials featuring them.”

The Chinese government has refused to verify rumors of the ban, although according to the sources, many Chinese enterprises have stopped applying for government permission for concerts or appearances by South Korean stars.

Before the THAAD decision, China was a huge market for South Korean cultural products mostly related to “hallyu,” or the K-pop and K-dramas that have gained increasing popularity worldwide.

As Korean content took a hit, Japan’s cultural content has shown no signs of losing ground in China.

In fact, the Japanese animation film “Your Name” drew 2.24 million people on Friday, breaking the opening day record for a 2D animation in China. Moreover, local media have praised the film with top ratings and rave reviews.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Trump's call with Taiwan's president broke decades of diplomatic protocol. Why isn't Beijing more angry? https://t.co/Kc68V19EVP

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) December 3, 2016

Facebook should stay out of any deal with Beijing, or risk exposing non-Chinese users to Chinese surveillance.https://t.co/ssOOj8li76 pic.twitter.com/3Y95VMBd8f

— FP's Tea Leaf Nation (@TeaLeafNation) November 29, 2016

It looks like more people are beginning to realize that the North Korean problem is really a Chinese problem.  Here is what journalist Gordon Chang thinks should be done by the incoming Trump administration to address the Chinese backing of North Korea:

North Korea looks impossible to solve, and it is if we see China as on our side. It is not.  But if we treat China as part of the problem, which it most certainly is, then we can begin to craft solutions, like secondary sanctions. Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, will stop supporting North Korea only when the costs of doing so are too high. So far, his country has suffered almost no penalty.

To impose costs, Trump’s administration could, among other things, cut offending Chinese banks off from the global financial system, sanction every Chinese proliferator, and impose his threatened 45% across-the-board tariff on China’s goods. He could end negotiations on the Bilateral Investment Treaty and treat Chinese businesses like Beijing treats American ones.

And Mr. Trump, starting January 20, will have the tools to raise the costs on Beijing. The Chinese will surely retaliate, but they have few effective options for a long-term struggle. After all, last year they ran a $334.1 billion trade surplus in goods and services against the United States. Trade-surplus countries are vulnerable in trade wars, and that is especially true of a China with an already fragile economy that is dependent on the American market.  [Forbes]

You can read the rest at the link.

Here is an interesting video published by the FBI warning Americans of how Chinese intelligence recruits people to work for them:

I thought the video was pretty well done and the lessons learned from it are applicable to more than just intelligence recruitment by the Chinese.

The Chinese government has quite the nerve to complain about the use of firearms in law enforcement operations when they are the same people that gunned down thousands of protesters in Tiananmen Square:

China called in a senior South Korean diplomat to lodge a formal protest against the use of a machine gun to crack down on Chinese fishing boats, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesperson said Friday.

On Tuesday, South Korea’s Coast Guard fired 600-700 bullets from a ship-mounted M60 toward Chinese vessels that were violently interfering in the capture of two fishing boats operating illegally off the western port city of Incheon. No injuries or damage were reported.

China’s foreign ministry protested the “violent law enforcement methods used” via its spokesperson Hua Chunying during a regular press briefing.

“China is strongly against any use of violent measures by South Korea that threatens the safety of Chinese fishermen,” she said. The official added that illegal fishing should not be a reason for South Korean authorities, including its Coast Guard, to use firearms.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes this news of Chinese tourists behaving badly in Jeju again:

Jeju airport is grappling with overflowing garbage from Chinese tourists.

Gates for international flights on the third floor of Jeju International Airport are teeming with rubbish from duty free goods purchased by Chinese tourists, according to Jeju newspaper Jemin Ilbo.

When tourists purchase duty free goods outside the airport, they have to pick them up from a designated area at the departure gate. The problem arises when the tourists rip the wrapping from the items at the gate before boarding, to reduce their size and weight. Then they leave the rubbish on the floor.

Staff from duty free shops and cleaners have asked Chinese tourists to use dumpsters, and even gave them garbage bags. The Korea Airports Corporation in Jeju has also taken action by increasing the number of cleaners at the gate from two to three.

“We will keep reinforcing the sanitation team at the gates for international flights,” an official from the airport told The Korea Times.  [Korea Times via reader tip]

You can read more at the link.

The Pirates of the Yellow Sea were in action again this week and the ROK Coast Guard decided to use warning shots to disperse them:

South Korea’s Coast Guard said Wednesday it has launched an investigation into two Chinese fishing vessels that were captured with the help of a large gun after the fishing boats illegally operated in the country’s exclusive economic zone earlier this week.

The boats were brought into the western port city of Incheon Wednesday afternoon. They were captured a day earlier in the Yellow Sea after the Coast Guard fired a M60 machine gun in warning.

The authorities said the gun was used to fight off some 30 other fishing boats nearby that interfered in the Coast Guard’s attempt to seize the two vessels, with some even threatening to collide with the patrol boats. No Chinese fishermen were injured and nothing was damaged in the process, according to the authorities.

The decision to use the weapon was made to safeguard the officers who had already boarded the Chinese vessels, and would have been cut off if other Chinese vessels succeeded in ramming the patrol boats that took part in the seizure operations, the Coast Guard said.

The Chinese boats had iron bars installed around the hulls and the gates to the steering house were closed to avoid entry, the authorities said.

The Coast Guard said it will interrogate the two captains and some 20 other crew members from the vessels to find out the details of the illegal fishing. It will also look into their relation with the other boats that got away.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.