/ world today news/ The Bulgarian audience is well aware of the unpleasant problem when a country, instead of betting on good neighborliness, bets on provocations and historical mystifications. Even more so when this, unfortunately, is done for the benefit of third powers that have nothing to do with the region. This is precisely the case with a statement by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who in a speech to the US Congress said historically incorrect things. He claimed that the US Marine Corps had held off a victory “by breaking through 120,000 Chinese Communist Army troops” at Changjinghu Lake. Moreover, the South Korean leader indirectly intervened in internal Chinese affairs by commenting on the Taiwan issue.
Beijing said that “the Taiwan issue is entirely an internal matter that is at the core of China’s core interests. Its decision is a matter for the Chinese people, who do not need anyone to tell them what should or should not be done,” it said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Unfortunately, instead of apologizing for their incorrect historical references and interference in the Taiwan issue, South Korea‘s Foreign Ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador, expressing “strong protest” and raising the issue to the level of “national integrity”.
“Those who play with fire as far as Taiwan is concerned will eventually get burned,” Chinese Foreign Minister Qing Gan said.
The question is, however, do the South Korean authorities realize the seriousness of this problem? The unpleasant impression remains that South Korea is acting in this case as a spokesperson for the position of the United States, and not for the Korean people as a whole, who have thousands of years of historical and cultural ties with the Chinese.
How will South Korea feel if China makes comments during meetings with foreign politicians about its territorial integrity? Of course South Korea would protest. And how will the United States feel if China begins to interfere in the issue of the sovereignty of the US-occupied Puerto Rico or even Hawaii and Alaska? It is more than clear. Why then is South Korea allowed to make inappropriate comments when it comes to the internal Chinese issue surrounding Taiwan? Because in fact these are comments of the United States, which is using in this case some politicians in Seoul as a proxy.
Seoul seems to have forgotten that the People’s Republic of China and South Korea restored diplomatic relations in 1986. South Korea, like almost all countries in the world, recognizes the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China over the island of Taiwan, so such comments are puzzling? Is Seoul questioning what it has admitted?
Attempts by some unscrupulous and historically incorrect commentators to equate the issues of China and its sovereignty over Taiwan with that of North and South Korea do not stand up to serious scrutiny. North and South Korea emerged as separate independent states at the end of World War II, both being member states of the United Nations, unlike Taiwan. This is not the case with the island of Taiwan, which by all the arrangements resulting from the victory of China and the international community in the Second World War should be under Chinese control. That the two lands around the Taiwan Strait are not yet de facto united does not at all diminish the legal sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China over the island of Taiwan.
More than 180 countries, almost all on the planet, including South Korea itself, recognize and support the One China principle. The UN has no doubt on the matter that Taiwan is part of China and has no separate status.
Another fact to focus on here is that the South Korean president made his comments on Taiwan shortly before his trip to the United States. Could this be a coincidence? Of course not. These are statements that do not reflect South Korea’s national interests, but seek sympathy among US hawkish politicians who talk about “containment” and do not hide their intentions to inflame escalation and tensions in the Taiwan Strait and East Asia.
South Korea and the People’s Republic of China are partners in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the largest free trade agreement in human history. The two countries are linked by millennia of shared history and cultural ties. And crucially, the Chinese market accounts for almost 20% of South Korea’s exports. China is the country’s largest trading partner. The turnover between the two countries was 140 billion dollars in 2021. This is a colossal amount and cooperation is of strategic interest to both countries.
History remembers that the two countries were even allies, for example, during China’s Song and Ming dynasties and Korea’s Goguryeo and Joseon. Confucian values and philosophy became key not only to Chinese civilization but also to Korea, and in the period 1592-1598, when the Japanese invaded Korea, it was China, under the rule of the Ming dynasty, that helped the country repel the invaders. Needless to say, the two countries also shared the struggle against Japanese militarism in World War II, when China fell victim to a Japanese invasion and Korea had already been under Japanese occupation for decades. There is serious resistance in Korea against the Japanese occupiers, which of course is supported by China.
South Korea and the People’s Republic of China can ensure peace and stability in East Asia and, within various formats and projects, promote intercultural dialogue, trade and economic cooperation not just in the region, but throughout Eurasia. But to do so, South Korea must proceed from its national and economic interests, not from Washington’s hawkish policy, which focuses on the creation of new iron curtains, “containment,” military alliances, and escalation of tensions.
And instead of Seoul dealing with the Taiwan problem, which does not concern it and is not an international issue, but an internal Chinese one, it should focus on its own problems. For example, the fact that after the leak of US documents from the Pentagon, it was revealed that the US illegally monitored its “allies”, including high-ranking South Korean politicians and government officials. Why didn’t Seoul protest as fiercely as it did against China when Beijing drew a line beyond which no one could interfere?
The best way South Korea can ensure its national interests is to start behaving like a truly sovereign state and express its own positions, rhetoric and policies, not Washington’s. South Korea, if it respects true international law, good neighborly relations and the Chinese people, should put aside the Taiwan issue, which is entirely China’s business, and instead focus on mutual trade, economic and cultural ties.
Together, Beijing and Seoul can help de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula and throughout East Asia. The two countries can work for the better life of their peoples by cooperating, even more so when the cornerstone of Chinese policy is respect for mutual interests and that there are no disaffected and outcasts in international politics. But clearly there are countries like the United States that promote division and try to create scandals, including on complex historical issues, to take advantage and escalate the situation, just as they have done in the case of Ukraine or for decades in the Middle East.
China and South Korea should not allow this, but the ball is completely in the South Koreans’ court. China has drawn the parameters of what is acceptable, and any inappropriate comments about its territorial integrity and sovereignty, including over Taiwan, cross those lines and create unnecessary tension.
#South #Korea #understand #playing #fire #Taiwan #issue
