A lawmaker from South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party (DP) deleted a social media post after it drew anger over its apparently pro-Chinese stance following the U.S.-South Korea summit in Washington.
On May 22, Rep. So Byung-hoon wrote on his Twitter account that “I would like to see one of President Moon Jae-in’s key advisors stop by in China to explain about the summit while returning home [from the United States].”
U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a summit and released a joint statement on May 21. The statement mentioned several sensitive issues related to China and the South Korean media reported that Rep. So’s purpose was to make sure that Beijing did not misinterpret the results of the summit.
“President Biden and President Moon emphasize the importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the joint statement between Biden and Moon read. This is the first time that “Taiwan” was included in a joint statement between Washington and Seoul.
Recently, the United States has been mentioning the Taiwan Strait issue to put more pressure on China, while South Korea has been careful not to mention this issue to avoid Chinese backlash.
The U.S.-ROK statement also said “we pledge to maintain peace and stability, lawful unimpeded commerce, and respect for international law, including freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and beyond.” The South China Sea is another issue that China is sensitive about.
Many responses to So’s tweet were angry about his controversial statement. Some comments read “Are we a dependency of China?” “You explain to us about what we should explain to China,” “Are you trying to say we should report diplomatic secrets to Xi Jinping?” Some people also said “are you getting kickbacks from China?” and “you sound like a Chinese agent.”
After the post drew huge backlash, Rep. So deleted his Twitter post. “Countries share information after they have meetings with other nations, so I was just sharing my wishful thinking in that regard,” So explained. “I deleted it right away since I thought it might have a negative impact on the successful summit.”
The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) released a statement on May 23 asking for Rep. So to apologize. “When did the Republic of Korea become a country that needs to consider what China would think about the summit and report the results to them?” the PPP said. “We understand people’s criticism that the Democratic Party believes the Republic of Korea is a dependency of China.”
The PPP added that “President Moon Jae-in praised China by using terms such as ‘Chinese Dream’ and ‘Big Country,’ and a ruling party member is asking the government to report the results to China.”
“We are seriously concerned about what kind of mindset they have when it comes to governing the country,” the PPP statement said. The PPP also argued that a ruling party’s lawmaker is publicly asking the government to be humiliated by China.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday warned the United States and South Korea not to interfere in the Taiwan issue. “We urge the countries concerned to be careful in their words on the Taiwan issue, and not to play with fire,” said Zaho Lijian, a spokesperson for the ministry in a news briefing. “The U.S.-South Korea joint statement mentioned Taiwan, the South China Sea and other issues. Taiwan issue is purely China’s internal affairs, and it concerns China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which brooks no foreign interference.”
This was not the first controversial comment from Rep. So. “The real estate issue is getting on track and I hope everyone just shut their mouths on things that are no longer important,” he said last month, referring to PPP’s criticism of the government’s comprehensive real estate tax policy. “The Republic of Korea is a country of 52 million people, not a country of 520,000 people.”
In South Korea, the comprehensive real estate tax was introduced in 2005 to prevent speculation in the real estate market. It collects additional taxes from people who own more than one real estate property. Currently, the number of people who have to pay comprehensive real estate tax is around 520,000. The Moon Jae-in government has been expanding the number of people who are required to pay the tax by lowering the price of real estate that qualifies for the tax and by raising the tax rate.
Last year, Rep. So also described people who own more than one property as criminals and thieves.
“I think we should treat people who buy and sell houses to make a profit as criminals,” he said. “They [who own more than one property] are thieves that stole people’s right to pursue happiness.” He argued that levying tax on them would not be enough and that they should be treated as criminals. “If it is not a violation of the constitution, we should make a law to make them criminals,” he said. After this comment drew strong backlash, he explained that he meant to specify speculators only and did not mean to argue that everyone with more than one property is a criminal.
Meanwhile, President Moon Jae-in wrote that it was “the best summit ever” on his Facebook account on Sunday. “The outcome of the summit exceeds our expectations and the United States took a lot of care to understand where we were coming from [on many issues.]”
The government and ruling party promoted the U.S. government’s plan to vaccinate 550,000 South Korean forces engaging regularly with American soldiers in Korea as one of the biggest successes from the summit. The two countries also agreed to launch a bilateral vaccine partnership to focus on vaccine production and research.
Biden and Moon also decided to end American restrictions on South Korea’s missile development. Seoul and Washington signed missile guidelines in October 1979. At the time, South Korea agreed to a 180-kilometer (112-mile) maximum range for its missiles in return for technology transfers from the United States.
After a series of revisions since then, Seoul was freed from restrictions on payloads and solid fuels, but was still prohibited from developing and operating ballistic missiles with a range farther than 800 kilometers.
This guideline has been terminated, and some South Korean media outlets said that it has won “complete missile sovereignty.” South Korea is thought to be able to expand the range of its current missile systems to around 1,500 kilometers. This would then put Beijing, which is 950 kilometers away, within range.
