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South Korean students in Beijing said Wednesday some 300 Chinese students attempted to burn Red Devils tee shirts and shouted abuse at them in front of a foreign dormitory after the football match between Korea and Germany on June 25, but were controlled by school security forces.
They said some students waved a poster of Korean actress Kim Hee-sun on which they had written "To Die." In a Chinese dorm adjacent to it, some Chinese threw empty bottles of mineral water and wastes waters at Korean students.
The South Korean Students Association made a protest to school deans for external affairs and student leaders of the Chinese Students Association the next day, but the latter claimed it was an outsider who orchestrated the incident, not a student.
Some South Korean female students are unwilling to be alone out of their dormitory or to meet with Chinese students even after World Cup.
China's Beijing University has the same story with its Internet homepage overwhelmed by messages abusing South Korea by Chinese students. A Chinese student was singled out as a traitor by posting a message of support for South Korea against Portugal and Beijing's largest shopping quarter, Wang Fu Jing, saw clashes between South Korean and Chinese students during the 2002 World Cup match.
According to sources the anti-Korean sentiment was the result of Chinese media such as CCTV claiming Korea was being given favors by referees. Some Chinese newspapers reporting the Korean match against Italy said it was an insult to world soccer history that Korea edged Italy thanks to referees taking the side of the co-host.
A South Korean entrepreneur, former executive director of South Koreans association in China said he couldn't understand the reaction by the young Chinese, hoping that bilateral relations should not worsen any more.
(Yeo Shi-dong, sdyeo@chosun.com )
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