Category: Europe

It took the EU quite a while to figure this out, but this is why President Trump had been pushing back against Chinese disinformation and propaganda by calling it the “China Virus”:

The European Union’s top diplomat has fired a warning shot at China’s “politics of generosity,” amid a growing sense of unease over Beijing’s targeted strategy to help certain European countries with medical supplies to fight Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

In an unusual choice of language, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on EU countries to stand ready for a “struggle for influence” in a “global battle of narratives.” (………..)

But two recent developments have changed the EU’s thinking, according to a diplomatic source briefed on the matter, driving EU officials closer to the rhetoric of regarding China as a “systemic rival,” a phrase first used under von der Leyen’s predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker.

First, there is the sense that China’s leadership prefers to deal directly with European countries, rather than through the EU. Von der Leyen was the only major European leader who did not receive a phone call from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

While Xi has phoned French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spain’s King Felipe over the past week, it was left to Premier Li Keqiang to make the call to Von der Leyen.

Second, the EU was startled by the reaction of Serbia, which is on course to begin accession talks at some stage to join the EU. When the EU hastily enacted an export ban on medical equipment, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic lambasted EU solidarity as a “fantasy,” turning instead to Xi, whom he called a friend and a brother.

While the EU urgently arranged $8.1 million in aid for Belgrade, China moved swiftly to solidify ties with Serbia, with Xi calling Vucic last week to pledge medical support and heap praise on the “ironclad friendship” between the two countries.

At the same time, Chinese diplomats stepped up what critics describe as a disinformation campaign on Twitter.

The Chinese Embassy to France, for instance, posted a series of tweets claiming the US government had covered up a coronavirus outbreak last year as flu cases, deflecting claims that Covid-19 originated in China.

“Following the surprise closure last July of the largest American research center for biochemical weapons, Fort Detrick base in Maryland, a series of pneumonia or similar cases have occurred in the United States,” one of the tweets claimed.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, the other thing that hardly anyone in the international media mentions is how the Chinese government is likely not telling the truth about how many of their people have been infected and killed by the coronavirus.

They are doing this to make it look like the Chinese government’s so called “competent” handling ended the virus threat in China while making the U.S. government look incompetent. This is being done for domestic political purposes, but also international reasons to differentiate their governmental model compared to the U.S. and build their influence.

I doubt we will see much change in the international media’s coverage of China because they incredibly hate President Trump more than Chinese President Xi.

South Korea expresses its condolences to France for the fire that damaged the Notre Dame cathedral:

South Korea voiced regret Tuesday over the massive fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and announced plans to conduct emergency inspections of local cultural assets.
The flames damaged the 12th-century cathedral, located in the heart of Paris, the previous day, sending a shock wave across the world.
“On behalf of the South Korean government, the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) expresses deep regret for the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral,” the agency said in a press release. “South Korea has nearly suffered a loss of precious cultural property due to the fire at Sungnyemun Gate.”
In 2008, the wooden portion of the gate, designated as a National Treasure of South Korea, was damaged by arson, with restoration work completed five years later.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but like the Sungnyemun Gate, it will be interesting to see if the Notre Dame cathedral fire was cause by arson as well. However, Paris officials are claiming it is an “accident” though they are investigating where the fire started. I don’t know how you claim something is an accident if you don’t know what started it.

I guess we will see what happens.

These are very capable artillery pieces that Estonia is purchasing from South Korea:

Estonia has agreed to buy South Korean artillery in a $54 million deal that officials say will substantially boost the small Baltic country’s defense capacity.

The Estonian military procurement agency says the contract with Seoul-based weapons producer Hanwha Land Systems is for 12 K9 Thunder howitzers, training, maintenance and spare parts.

Agency director Col. Rauno Sirk said after a signing ceremony on Tuesday that the artillery pieces “will bring Estonia’s defense capacity to a new level and be one of the most considerable steps of building up armored maneuvering capacity.”

The first howitzers are to arrive in Estonia in 2020.  [Stars & Stripes]

It appears these activists will not be happy until there are comfort women statues in every major city in the world:

Japanese diplomats in Germany are reportedly trying to obstruct a civic group’s plan to erect a “girl statue” representing wartime sex slavery victims inside a museum in Bonn.

The diplomats recently visited Marianne Pitzen, founder and chief of the Bonn Women’s Museum, following media reports that a girl statue would be installed inside, said Yi Eun-hi, an activist who is leading the project.

Over 200,000 South Korean women were abused as sex slaves by the Japanese army before and during World War II.

At the meeting with Pitzen, the Japanese diplomats insisted that the number of the so-called comfort women is difficult to calculate and that they “volunteered” to serve for Japanese soldiers.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Meanwhile in the UK:

Think of all the Victorian disembowelings that could have been prevented, had Jack the Ripper been confronted by the persuasive powers of Cookie Monster pic.twitter.com/z01pp2NPtY

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 11, 2018

Here is yet another example of a comfort woman statue being built outside of Korea:

A “comfort woman” statue is expected to be erected in France to honor the victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery.

According to Ahn Shin-kwon, director of the House of Sharing, a shelter for surviving victims in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, the Gwangmyeong City Government and Koreans living in France are in favor of the idea.

“We are trying to figure out if there is a way to set up a statue in public place,” Ahn told The Korea Times Monday.

“We will surely face hurdles along the way just like we did during our San Francisco project. But we will keep pushing hard to make it happen.”

If erected, the statue will be the first comfort woman statue in France.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

The fact that Europe is within ICBM range means that any NATO country that to comes to the aid of South Korea during a crisis puts them at risk of nuclear retaliation.  Will any NATO countries risk nuclear retaliation to help the ROK?:

North Korea responded Wednesday to European concerns about being in the path of Pyongyang’s potentially nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by assuring the leader of Western military alliance NATO that such weapons were only intended for the U.S.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said during an interview last week with Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun that “Europe has also entered the [North Korean] missile range, and NATO member states are already in danger.” North Korea’s ruling party-run Rodong Shinmun newspaper countered these claims, calling Stoltenberg’s remarks “false and groundless” because, although European states are indeed in North Korea’s missile range, Pyongyang has no intention of pulling the trigger.

“The DPRK’s ballistic rockets are for deterring the U.S. nuclear war hysterics and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the region. They are not for threatening Europe and the world,” the commentary read, according to the official Korea Central News Agency, referring to the country’s official title: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  [Newsweek]

You can read more at the link, but this is just another example of how their nuclear and ICBM programs are about more than regime survival.  They also are being developed to isolate the ROK from its allies and ultimately separate the ROK from the US.

It is pretty clear that over the next month enormous pressure is going to be put on North Korea to give up their nuclear and ICBM programs as even the European powers are now deploying military assets into the region:

France’s Mistral amphibious assault carrier docked in Nagasaki, Japan on April 29 in advance of military exercises to be conducted with the U.K., U.S., and Japan. Nagasaki is the closest major Japanese port to South Korea, and coming at a time of tension on the peninsula, the French and U.K. naval presence sends a strong message to both China and North Korea. Japan’s increased naval activity is also welcome support for South Korea, and will decrease diplomatic tension between the two natural allies. The U.K. and French presence shows that NATO, including the U.S., is strongly behind South Korea.  [Forbes]

You can read more at the link.

It is telling that Secretary of Defense James Mattis gave no warnings to South Korea or Japan during his recent visit to the area, but did gave a warning to NATO to increase spending:

SecDef Mattis, in Brussels, warns @NATO allies they have to increase their defense spending this year or US "will moderate its commitment."

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 15, 2017