On April 28, 2019, China’s state-run CCTV aired the documentary program “Light of Wisdom: Belt and Road.” The program dealt with foreign celebrities who support and promote the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative (formerly known as One Belt One Road).
The documentary portrays how One Belt One Road is revolutionizing logistics around the world and includes episodes of facilitators in countries around the world. It also depicts how transnational governance promoted by Communist China is bringing economic prosperity to countries worldwide.
The program’s Korean episode featured Choi Jae-cheon, a former South Korean National Assembly member and attorney. Choi founded the New Silk Road Institute in Korea in 2019. He is proud to work with the Chinese Communist Party to study and research the Belt and Road Initiative. It seems that he believes at face value the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that the world can prosper through Xi Jinping’s theory of a common international destiny for all and the Belt and Road Initiative’s key role in delivering this destiny.
Epilogue of the documentary “Light of Wisdom: Belt and Road”
“In the past, all roads used to lead to Chang’an (now known as Xi’an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty), but now all roads lead to Beijing. The Belt and Road Initiative will be a huge platform, and everyone in the world will create value and share profits on this huge platform.”
What Choi said in the documentary’s epilogue reveals the mentality akin to Confucian scholars during the Korean Joseon dynasty (1392-1897), who looked up to China. Chinese historians seem to have the same psychology that they pride themselves on being the center of the Eastern civilization, comparable to the Roman Empire in the West. It is the same psychology as the “Confucianism of Joseon,” which claimed to be precious in the past, or as ‘small China’.
It is quite unusual for China’s state-run CCTV to highlight Korean politicians for about 15 minutes. However, it is not well-known in South Korea that he is a Korean politician favored by China. CCTV and China’s Global Times also covered Choi Jae-cheon and the New Silk Road Institute he founded in detail. The South Korean media presumably should have reported that Choi is a popular figure in the Chinese media, but strangely, it was never covered.
After serving as the 17th and 19th National Assemblies, Choi Jae-cheon planned to establish a think-tank. He stated that the way to overcome the then-existing economic slump in South Korea was through the Belt and Road Initiative.
So, in 2019, he established the New Silk Road Institute and became the chairman of the board. There are two co-chairs at the New Silk Road Institute. One is Roh Jae-heon, the son of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo. The other is Qu Huan, chairman of the Korea China Association for Cultural Exchange, that is suspected of being the CCP’s outlet for a united front.
Korea China Association for Cultural Exchange’s Chairman Qu Huan also won the Sejong Prize from the Korean government for promoting exchanges and cooperation between the two countries. Qu Huan, who settled in South Korea a long time ago, appeared at various Belt and Road Initiative events and has raised many suspicions at a time when anti-China sentiment has risen sharply in the general public.
After the New Silk Road Institute was established, the Belt and Road International Youth Forum was held in February 2019. Around 200 young scholars from 78 countries were invited to Seoul where the international conference was held, which cost about 100 million won. According to CCTV reports, Choi Jae-cheon and Qu Huan each financed 50 million won.
In April of the same year, the New Silk Road Institute held a commemorative seminar under the theme of ‘One Belt One Road and Korea, Vision and Prospect for Cooperation’ at the National Assembly Hall. Liu Zhenpei, head of the China Institute for International Strategic Studies, was the keynote speaker. Among those who attended were Choi Jae-cheon, co-Chairman of the Board Roh Jae-heon, Qu Huan, One Country Two Systems policy, and Zhang Shirong, the director of the PRC’s National Institute for Unification.
The head of the China Institute for International Strategic Studies and the head of an agency that studies the CCP’s unification strategy for Hong Kong and Taiwan have also publicly appeared in the National Assembly of Korea.
The New Silk Road Institute even held a research discussion event at the National Assembly building in May 2018 before its official launch. Qi Zhenhong, the director of the China Institute of International Studies, was invited to give a lecture. The name of the event was ‘China’s unique diplomacy during the new era’.
It is worth paying attention to the name of the event, which was attended by Choi Jae-cheon, chairman of the institute, his co-chair Qu Huan, and Wang Wei, an official at the Chinese Embassy in South Korea. He described China as a great nation, going beyond the term “G2,” which has not been widely used in international academia. The term “great nation” was used only in the history of East Asia in the past during tribute diplomacy based on Sinocentric views.
China’s state-run People’s Daily reported that the event held a discussion on the theme of China’s distinctive socialist foreign policy advocated by Xi Jinping based on the 19th National People’s Congress. The purpose of the event was to improve exchanges and cooperation between the two countries by implementing Xi Jinping’s diplomatic ideas. Xi Jeonhong, head of the China Institute for International Studies, said, “China’s foreign policy is to revive the nation and form a community of destined humans.”
Spreading Chinese Propaganda and Influence in South Korea
Such Belt and Road Initiative activities are reaching out to various local governments in South Korea, in addition to the subtle propaganda delivered under the name of academic seminars and international conferences.
The local government in Gangwon-do, where Korea’s front-line military facilities are concentrated is trying to create a 1.2 million square meter Chinatown in Hongcheon in cooperation with China but fell through (for now) due to public opposition.
Since 2018, the Gangwon-do government has been pushing for the construction of a facility called the Korea-China Cultural Town as a way of attracting Chinese tourists. However, 670,000 people filed a petition to the Blue House opposing the project.
Although the Gangwon-do project was canceled due to strong anti-China public opinion, it was confirmed that Chinese capital invested $480 million to buy 56.19 hectares of land on the coast of Jeongdongjin, Gangwon-do to build another Chinatown. Jeongdongjin is known as the most beautiful beach on the South Korea’s east coast.
In addition, it’s been reported that a large-scale Chinatown and Confucius Village are being planned in Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do, where the U.S. Army Rodriguez Live Fire Range and the ROK V Corps are located. Both South Korea and China will also spend $71.68 million to create a Korea-China “smart village.”
Smart village is a high-tech urban model that monitors citizens with facial recognition cameras and China is aiming to introduce the ‘smart village’ into other countries if the joint venture in Korea succeeds.
Although it is claimed to be a private project, Smart City is a major project of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Ambassador to Korea Xing Haiming was reportedly in attendance at the briefing session to discuss ways to support the project, along with Korean conglomerates like CJ, Doosan, and the Shinhan Bank.
For your reference, CJ, which is strong in entertainment content, also operates ZHTV (Chunghwa TV), a channel specializing in Chinese content. Pocheon City, which is pushing for the Chinatown, also supported to distribute masks to its sister cities in China when South Korea was suffering from a shortage of masks during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, enraging the local citizens.
In another example of Chinese influence efforts, in December 2020, the Gangwon Provincial Council made a bizarre claim that the souls of the Chinese soldiers who invaded and died during the Korean War should be soothed. There is a history of war in Paro Lake, located in Hwacheon, Gangwon-do. This is where South Korean and UN forces wiped out 24,000 Chinese soldiers. Paro Lake was named by President Rhee Syng-man as the lake that defeated the invaders in honor of this victory.
Gangwon Province is a popular destination for Chinese tourists, and there was also a demand to change the name of Paro Lake because it could offend them. In 2018, the Chinese Foreign Ministry pressured then-Ambassador to China Roh Young-min to change the name of Paro Lake. After serving as the ambassador, Roh served as a chief of staff in the Blue House and repeated the CCP’s request. At that time, the Chinese government-run Global Times also published an article demanding to correct the name of the Paro Lake and criticized the South Korean military’s claim of victory as untrue.
The Chinese Communist Party silently infiltrated Korea by putting the Belt and Road Initiative’s Confucius Institute at the front. In Sweden, where the Confucius Institute was first established in Europe, all Confucius Institutes have been closed due to the worsening public opinion surrounding Chinese ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy. Yet they are still operating in South Korea. South Korea was the first nation to establish Confucius Institutes in Asia beginning in 2004 and has the most with 22 institutes.
Many Confucius Institutes have already been closed in the U.S. and Europe. Although it began later in South Korea, a civic group called the Citizens for Exposing Confucius Institutes (CUCI) is actively campaigning to shut down Confucius Institutes. In May 2021, Doris Liu, the filmmaker of the documentary “In the Name of Confucius,” was invited to South Korea to screen her documentary and have a post-screening discussion event.
In addition, there has been controversy in Korea over the Chinese wife of the Belgian ambassador slapping a clothing store employee on the cheek. However, it was shocking to find that the wife of the Belgian Ambassador was a former tai chi instructor at a Confucius Institute in Lithuania.
It is a well-known fact that the Confucius Institute is an organization that uses China’s cultural soft power as a cloak and uses ideological propaganda and ‘united front’ tactics against the world. The Confucius Institutes in South Korea promote and propagandize, to include via Chinese textbooks, that the Chinese forces’ involvement in the Korean War was justified, and that Mao Zedong is a great leader. However, many universities in South Korea, which are suffering from financial difficulties, lack caution. It is also true that many scholars share the mindset of Choi Jae-cheon, head of the New Silk Road Institute, that all roads lead to Beijing.
The crucial issue is that in Korea, spies from the CCP have never been caught. Korea’s National Security Act has many loopholes. The National Security Act has no provisions on communism or the Communist Party. It only regulates anti-state organizations as, “(an) organization or group which uses fraudulently the title of the government or aims at a rebellion against the State, and which is provided with a command and leadership system.” According to the National Security Act, the CCP is not an anti-state organization even if it conducts surveillance and propaganda activities in South Korea. In addition to the National Security Act, criminal law also stipulates that those who commit espionage, aid and abet, murder, and/or carry weapons, can face up to 7 years in prison, but there is no explanation for what actually constitutes espionage.
Park Sang Hoo
Birth year: 1968
Major Work Experience
Runs the YouTube channel ‘Mr. Park’s Bunmeikaika’ (international news on the US, Japan, China, Russia, history, humanities)
212,040 subscribers
Guest columnist for the Monthly Chosun, guest columnist for PenNMike.
Former MBC’s Beijing correspondent (2006-2009)
MBC’s international department head, culture department head, national department head, elections, ‘100 Minutes Discussion’ deputy director
Educational Background
MA in East Asian Studies and Chinese Studies, Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University
Thesis: The Role of Hakka in Taiping Revolt and Chinese Communist Revolution
Graduated from the Division of Chinese Language, Literature and Culture, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Written Work: Those who made the Japanese modern nation state
Translation Work: Mao Zedong, the People’s Traitor
