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Officials from the Chinese Embassy in Korea called ruling and opposition party lawmakers, asking them not to attend the inauguration ceremony of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-ben on May 20 prior to their attendance of the event. The Chinese Embassy officials also sent letters to the leaderships of each party. China, which sticks to the ¡°One China¡± principle, may ask the Korean government to respect its policy toward Taiwan. However, it is an absolutely separate matter if China goes past the government level and demands that Korean politicians go or not to go to a certain country. In a nutshell, it is diplomatic discourtesy and insolence.
We would have felt less upset if they had made the request in a polite way. Rather, they asked, in a high-handed manner, ¡°Don¡¯t go there,¡± and ¡°You will have to visit China someday, no?¡± These are tantamount to threats, in fact.
More disturbingly, the Chinese Embassy has shown disagreeable responses since its demand was made public. Instead of expression of regret, the information officer of the embassy said, ¡°China would not take immediate measures against the relevant individuals, but it would remember. We remember when big and small things occur.¡± It is a total threat. The officer went further, boldly making a disparaging remark about our lawmakers, saying that there were questions about "lawmakers who go to Taiwan just to fool around."
63 percent of ruling party lawmakers count China as our most important diplomatic and trading partner. How come the relationship between Korea and China has frustratingly reached this point in a country where the ruling party is placing more value on China, rather than the U.S.? The more China grows into a powerful country, the more it will grow arrogant and disrespectful. It is a frightening situation even to imagine. We are really curious as to what measures is the government, which emphasizes independent diplomacy toward the U.S., coming up with in preparation for that situation?
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