Tag: China

According to the article Chinese nationals make up 56% of the suspicious property transactions currently being investigated. Americans make up 21%, Taiwanese 8%, and Canadians 6.6% of the additional suspicious real estate cases:

A view of apartment complexes seen in Jamsil in southern Seoul [YONHAP]

The Korean government detected over 400 suspicious land transactions made by foreigners between 2017 and 2022, with more than half of the cases linked with Chinese nationals.    
   
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport reported 437 land acquisitions deemed illegal to related investigation agencies following its large-scale nationwide investigation conducted from February through to June. Out of a total of 14,938 foreign land transactions between 2017 and 2022, the investigation then focused on 920 suspicious cases, in which individuals involved were asked to provide supporting documents for further examination.  (…..)

The investigation identified various violations, with the most common being the manipulation of reported transaction amounts and contract dates, with 419 cases of misreported contracts. Additionally, 61 cases were suspected of tax evasion through expedient gifting, and 35 cases raised suspicions of illegally imported funds from overseas.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

At this point I don’t know how anyone can dismiss that COVID leaked from the Wuhan lab especially since the Chinese are not allowing any independent investigation into it:

A security person moves journalists away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology after a World Health Organization team arrived for a field visit in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province on Feb. 3, 2021. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

U.S. officials released an intelligence report Friday that rejected some points raised by those who argue COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab, instead reiterating that American spy agencies remain divided over how the pandemic began.

The report was issued at the behest of Congress, which in March passed a bill giving U.S. intelligence 90 days to declassify intelligence related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Intelligence officials under President Joe Biden have been pushed by lawmakers to release more material about the origins of COVID-19. But they have repeatedly argued China’s official obstruction of independent reviews has made it perhaps impossible to determine how the pandemic began.

The newest report angered some Republicans who have argued the administration is wrongly withholding classified information and researchers who accuse the U.S. of not being forthcoming. (……….)

But Friday’s report said the intelligence community has not gone further. Four agencies still believe the virus was transferred from animals to humans, and two agencies — the Energy Department and the FBI — believe the virus leaked from a lab. The CIA and another agency have not made an assessment.

Located in the city where the pandemic is believed to have began, the Wuhan Institute of Virology has faced intense scrutiny for its previous research into bat coronaviruses and its reported security lapses.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I guess the real question is why are some of these intelligence agencies claiming COVID came from an animal when no one has been able to prove that either?

Kim Gi-hyeon does make a good point and this proposal would encompass more than just Chinese nationals:

The leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) on Tuesday suggested scrapping the voting rights of Chinese nationals living in South Korea, saying that vice-versa is not the case.

Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon made the remark in an address at the National Assembly as leader of a parliamentary negotiating bloc, saying relations between South Korea and China should be based on the principle of reciprocity.

“At the time of the local elections in June last year, about 100,000 Chinese nationals residing here had the right to vote. However, no suffrage is guaranteed at all for our people in China,” Kim said during the address.

“Why should we be the only one opening the latch? What is fair would be not to give voting rights to foreigners from countries that do not give our people voting rights,” he said.

Since 2005, South Korea has given foreigners the right to vote in local elections if three years have passed since they gained permanent residency. Some critics have said the law gives Chinese too much say in local politics.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to hear what the Chinese response to this will be.

I don’t think the Yoon administration is going to get any appropriate response back from China because the ambassador likely said exactly what the CCP thinks of Korea:

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

South Korea is waiting for China to take an “appropriate measure” following controversial remarks made by its ambassador in Seoul over South Korea’s ties with the United States, a presidential official said Tuesday.

Tensions have flared between Seoul and Beijing after China’s Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming said in a meeting with main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung that those who “bet on China’s loss” in its rivalry with the United States “will definitely regret it.”

The remarks were interpreted as a warning to Seoul against aligning itself with Washington.

“From our point of view, there was something that ran contrary” to diplomatic protocols, the presidential official told reporters.

“We’re waiting for the Chinese side to carefully consider this problem and to take the appropriate measure regarding this,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.