Alex Jenson  00:08

You’re listening to Koreabizcast with the KBLA. I’m your host, Alex Jensen, and it’s Monday, February 14. But there’s not much love for China at the moment in this country anyway, when we look at the Beijing Olympics backlash, especially some of the suspicions about officiating at the games, and then on top of that, a controversy around the use of Hanbok in the Beijing 2022 Opening Ceremony, not to mention some of the anti China messages that are forming part of the rhetoric and the build up to the presidential election, the start of next month. We’re going to have our regular correspondent on this, Kyungmi Choi, to talk us through what we need to know and how it could actually affect the relationship with China, including on the business and trade front. Before we get there. Let me thank today’s sponsor, Eastpointe partners, offering an unparalleled Asia wide network of relationships with corporates, governments, and investors. Well, now then we can do a formal introduction with Kyungmi Choi, who’s on the line on this Valentine’s Day, I think you’re the first person I’m wishing a Happy Valentine’s Day to because we’re recording this in advance. And so it feels a bit strange, but hope you have a great one.

Kyungmi Choi  01:27

Well, Happy Valentine’s Day, Alex.

Alex Jenson  01:30

Thank you very much. I was saying just before in the opening that China’s not getting a lot of love from this country. Quite the opposite, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has stirred up further controversies around Korea. Issues that could well go beyond the Winter Games and affect bilateral relations, diplomacy, trade or business, I feel can be like even on the left side of the political aisle where there’s been a bit more sympathy towards China. What’s happened at the Olympics is actually driven hostilities there too. But let’s start with developments surrounding the games opening ceremony, and particularly surrounding Korea’s national dress the Hanbok.

Kyungmi Choi  02:14

Right so at the opening ceremony, which was held on Friday, February 4, representatives of 56 ethnic groups in China carry it, it’s our national flag and they were all wearing their own traditional dress. And this included Joseonjok or ethnic Koreans and they’re known to account for around 0.2% of the country’s total population. And a woman wearing Hanbok took part in the ceremony to represent this group. But this has angered many Koreans who are protesting China’s move of including hanbok as a traditional attire for one of its own ethnic groups and calling it cultural appropriation. And an online petition has been posted on the presidential office’s website calling for the government to stop China from stealing Korea’s culture.

Alex Jenson  02:58

You know, it’s okay to wear Hanbok around Seoul. It means as a foreigner, you get free entry to the palaces and that sort of thing. But don’t claim it as your own. It really has upset people. And it kind of reminds me of some of the debates around Kimchi, for example. There’s even been the Chinese claim to that, one of Korea’s national side dishes. So both Seoul and China have responded to this hanbok controversy. Can you outline what’s happened?

Kyungmi Choi  03:24

Right, so first, the presidential office of Cheongwadae unveiled its position on Monday, emphasizing that the entire world acknowledges Hanbok as Korea’s traditional attire and that relevant departments in Korea are closely watching developments on the matter. And then the following day last Tuesday, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry stated that it’s not responding to the issue in a lukewarm manner. And it also unveiled that it expressed the local interest and concerns to his Chinese counterparts. And then in response, Beijing said that it’s well aware of the public opinion in Korea on the issue, and that the depiction of Hanbok at the opening ceremony is irrelevant to the dresses cultural origin. And according to the Korean foreign ministry, China also confirmed that Hanbok is Korean and a part of its inherent traditional culture.

Alex Jenson  04:12

You know, Kyungmi, if this was an Olympics in a say US city, let’s say LA and it was representing different ethnic groups within that place and and then you had Hanbok represented. I sense the reaction would be very different like there would be perhaps an element of of pride there and celebrating Korean culture in the US, a lot of this does seem to connect to the anti China movement politically and socially in recent years that’s even affected. For example, the direction of TV dramas when young people have pushed back against Chinese influence here in Korea. So against that backdrop, later in the day, after what you just described, the Chinese Embassy in Seoul issued a separate statement, denying this accusation that it had tried to steal Korean culture,

Kyungmi Choi  05:04

Right, so the embassy said that it’s paying attention to speculation and criticism by some media outlets, which has left China’s online users, especially the ethnic Koreans frustrated, and it went on to say that China is a multi ethnic nation formed of 56 groups, and that it’s their hope and right to wear their representative attires to attend a major international sports competitions such as the Olympics, and other major national events, and it rejected the accusation of cultural appropriation and looting, as ethnic Koreans in China are of the same descent as people of the two Koreas. And they also share common traditional cultures, including the attire. And it also said that China respects Korea’s history and traditional culture and asked Seoul to also respect the sentiment of China’s ethnic groups, including the ethnic Koreans.

Alex Jenson  05:54

So we could debate this in itself, but we were mentioning it because it forms this narrative because then there was this other issue at the Olympics when two South Korean short trackers were penalized. One of them in particular drew an appeal from South Korea, saying that go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and it angered many citizens who are watching they couldn’t understand why these disqualifications had taken place. Especially when we then saw Chinese athletes winning medals.

Kyungmi Choi  06:25

Right, so the two Korean skaters, Hwang Dae Heon and Lee Jun Seo were disqualified in the men’s 1000 meter race on Monday, Hwang for an illegal late passing, causing contact in the first semi final heat after he crossed the line first, and Lee Jun Seo was also disqualified for a lane change causing contact. And as you mentioned, Chinese athletes advanced to the final due to the elimination of these two Korean athletes.

Alex Jenson  06:50

Can you take us through some of the action that Korea is adopting now?

Kyungmi Choi  06:55

So the Korean team issued protest to the international skating unions chief referee regarding the penalties, but the ISU rejected the move saying that the chief referee stands by his final decisions after reviewing the incident once more with the video referee, and in response, the president of the Korea skating union and the head of the country’s athletic delegation Yoon Hong Geun. He stated that the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee will appeal with the Court of Arbitration for sports to publicize what he referred to as the unfairness that resulted in the disqualification. And this is the first time in 18 years for Korea to file any case with a top international sports court and he said the move was to prevent a recurrence in the international skating and sporting communities in the future. And a senior official on Korea’s short track team and an international skating union referee Choi Yong Gu also held a press conference, where he argued that the two skaters didn’t commit any violations that warranted disqualification. And he said this was based on footage review for both cases, and Choi said that the Beijing Games have already been tainted by poor officiating,

Alex Jenson  08:01

But it builds this bigger narrative. So the Chinese Embassy has actually expressed grave concerns over anti China sentiment rising in Korea.

Kyungmi Choi  08:11

Right, on Wednesday, the embassy said through a statement that some Korean media and politicians are attacking the Chinese government and the Beijing Olympics as a whole and even encouraging anti China sentiment and expressed grave concerns. And into this Seoul’s foreign ministry spokesperson Choi Young Seon called on the embassy to be prudent in releasing public statements regarding its host country’s news coverage and comments by politicians in consideration of the country’s situation and sentiment. And he added that the ministry will maintain the stance and carrying out necessary communication going forward. And Choi also dismissed the claim that the Korean government was responding to the embassy in a passive manner. Meanwhile, the Chinese ambassador to Seoul Xing Haiming has congratulated Hwang Dae Heon the player that you mentioned, who is of course one of the short trackers that were disqualified last Monday for after he won his gold in the men’s 1500 meter race on Wednesday. Through a spokesperson the ambassador stated that Chinese people are positively evaluating Hwang’s performance in show of the true friendship of the people of the two countries.

Alex Jenson  09:16

And these incidents have spilled over into the presidential election that I referred to before. Lee Jae Myung was the one I was kind of surprised about because he was so forthright. You expect Yoon Seok Yeol the Conservative candidate to be stirring the anti China feeling because that’s been part of his platform it seems going into the election next month.

Kyungmi Choi  09:37

So starting with Lee Jae Myung, as you referred to earlier in response to the controversy surrounding Korea’s traditional dress. He wrote on Facebook to not cover the culture of others oppose cultural appropriation. And then following the judging controversy for speedskating. He once again took the social media to express disappointment and anger towards the decision and he also showed support towards the Korean delegations decision to take the matter to of CES and told reporters that it’s necessary for Chinese authorities to reflect on the referee controversy. And in a separate interview with the local daily Seage Ilbo released last week Lee Jae Myung said that he’ll say what he needs to say with regards to the diplomacy with China, and then evolved to take stern measures against Chinese fishing boats in the West Sea and instruct the military to fire upon and destroy them because the boats are illegally crossing into South Korea’s territorial waters.

Alex Jenson  10:33

Right. I think it really does summarize very well what I was driving at before but then we did have some strong words in response to what he said.

Kyungmi Choi  10:41

Right, so the main opposition parties or candidate Yoon Seok Yoel’s campaign team accused Lee Jae Myung of trying to use the anti China sentiment fueled by the recent incidents are related to the Olympics, and calling it a populist campaign strategy. And minor opposition Justice Party’s candidate Shim Sang Jung said that the presidential election is not about electing a military commander. Oh, this was in response to his remarks about the legal or Chinese fishing boats. And she added that unconditionally sinking on the illegal fishing boat will escalate tensions among the neighboring countries and pose risks of a local war.

Alex Jenson  11:16

What about what Yoon Seok Yeol had to say about the Beijing Olympics situation?

Kyungmi Choi  11:20

So Yoon Seok Yeol told our reporters that children learn about democracy through sports roles, and that he’s concerned that they would be largely disappointed by the situation at the Olympics. And he also shared the music video of a song titled dreaming of Balhae by the band’s Seo Tae Ji and boys and Balhae here refers to one of the two ancient Korean kingdoms that China has been trying to include in its own history along with Goguryoe, which of course angered many Koreans. Yoon Seok Yeol wrote that the issues have fueled anger among the Korean public, and that at the core is China’s North East project of trying to subordinate and corporate Korea’s history into China’s and the Northeast project was a research initiated by China on the history and current situation of the frontiers of its north eastern region. All this was carried out from 2002 to 2007. And one of the claims made in this project was that the ancient Korean kingdoms in this region for Chinese jurisdiction, considering their location of being within borders of China’s modern state. And Yoon also criticized the Culture Sports and Tourism Minister of Hwang Hee, who attended the opening ceremony in Beijing. Hwang was wearing Hanbok at the event, but reportedly, he refused to lodge an official protest with the organizers of the games over the controversy surrounding the Korean dress, citing the possibility of causing misunderstanding in bilateral relations. And minor opposition People’s Party nominee An Cheol Soo also said to Facebook that Hanbok is Korean and that it’s not Hanfu, and Hanfu is the name of China’s traditional garment. But some members of the Chinese public claim that Hanbok originated from Hangzhou and that the Hanbok that appeared in popular Korean shows such as the Netflix series kingdom was actually Hanfu.

Alex Jenson  13:06

And I think that comes back to explaining why there was this pushback against that Hanbok at the Beijing opening ceremony. It wasn’t just a case of celebrating pure Korean culture, if you like and then you have the People Power Party candidate also expressing views on Seoul’s ties with Beijing and a recent oped for Foreign Affairs, heavily criticizing the current government for his handling of China’s economic retaliation after the deployment of US anti missile THAAD defense.

Kyungmi Choi  13:35

Yoon Seok Yeol, he said that South Korea has faced China’s economic retaliation but unlike some other countries that made similar moves off from Beijing. So we’ll get into the retaliation at the expense of its own security interests, and refer to its decision to deploy the thought of battery to defend against North Korean missiles. And China mounted economic pressure from all angles including encouraging boycotts of Korean products and imposing trade and tourism restrictions. According to this piece, written by Yoon and Yoon further claims that Moon Jae In administration responded with overly accommodating gestures meant to educate China, declaring the three nodes policy are no additional thought deployments, no participation in a US missile defense network, and no establishment of a trilateral military alliance with the US and Japan.

Alex Jenson  14:25

Just to remind ourselves, can we let’s rewind back to a few years ago when Seoul decided to deploy this THAAD system and the kind of impact that had on Korean businesses.

Kyungmi Choi  14:36

Right, so to remind you, Seoul and Washington agreed to deploy THAAD in July of 2016. And this immediately prompted retaliation from Beijing and during his campaigns in spring of the following year in 2017, Moon Jae In impled that he may scrap the deployment plan once it becomes president. And this raised hopes among Korean business people that China would ease all its restrictions, but the US military partially installed the system on a former golf course in Seonju of North Kyungsang province in late April. Just before the election that took place and brought Moon to power and after his inauguration, Moon Jae In pushed ahead with a systems deployment with tensions rising on the Korean peninsula. And in response, China continued to ramp up its pressure against South Korea, which included a ban on group tours by Chinese travelers. And this led to a huge drop in Chinese visitors to Korea which was a major blow for Korea’s tourism industry. And according to official figures from Seoul’s immigration authorities, the number of Chinese nationals entering Korea in January 2018 saw a 46% on your drop, with a total number of standing at around 305,000. And while numerous businesses suffered from China’s move, Lotte group was highlighted because it became a main target, after it handed over one of its golf courses and Seongju county as the site for the thought battery. And this affected Lotte Mall. Its operating in China with stores being fined and facing suspensions. And they eventually were forced to shut down the supermarket chain and had to leave China completely. And many companies seem to view the economic retaliation as an ongoing issue according to numerous reports. And according to market research firm CEO Score last June 113 enterprises that constitute Korea’s top 500 enterprises, and have manufacturing subsidiaries in China said that the annual sales of 320 subsidiaries dropped 27.5% from around 143 trillion won in 2016 to just under 104 trillion won in 2020. And they pointed to factors such as China’s thought retaliation and US China trade disputes as the reason.

Alex Jenson  16:49

Thanks for the background. And another excellent round up an overview as we head towards that presidential election. It’s easy to see how the China factor is going to become all the more prominent, Kyungmi Choi.

Kyungmi Choi  17:01

Thank you for having me, Alex.

Alex Jenson  17:03

And let me also say thank you everybody for joining us on this Valentine’s Day. Wish you a day filled with love, happiness and perhaps anticipation of our next episode. See you again tomorrow