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China's diplomatic insolence has reached a point where it has demanded that Korean lawmakers apologize after Beijing forcibly broke up a press conference by a delegation of visiting Grand National Party parliamentarians. This attitude is being encouraged by deep flaws in our basic diplomatic approach to China.
Whenever China has acted insolently, we have failed to offer an adequate response, placing our faith in "quiet diplomacy." Even when we summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest, we did so behind closed doors. Yet when we summoned the Japanese ambassador, we told the press of the time and place and took pictures.
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Police restrain a member of a civic group outside the Chinese Embassy, Hyoja-dong, on Friday during a demonstration against the Chinese government's breakup of a press conference by Grand National Party lawmakers.
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In July 2002, when China threatened to retaliate against Korean manufactured goods unless Korea opened up its garlic market, we agreed to liberalize Chinese garlic imports from 2003. When the Foreign Ministry refused to make the agreement public, then trade minister Han Duck-soo was forced to resign.
When a Korean named Shin was executed in China after being arrested on a drugs charge, our diplomatic authorities learned what happened only after the execution had already taken place. In January 2002, when Korean lawmakers were planning to visit China to investigate the conditions of ethnic Koreans ahead of planned changes to Korean laws on expatriates, the Chinese Embassy committed a flagrant breach of etiquette by refusing to issue visas. Last May, the Chinese Embassy made threatening phone calls to ruling and opposition party lawmakers who were planning to attend the inauguration of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian.
In October, when Chinese police raided a safe house on the outskirts of Beijing that was being used by North Korean defectors looking to go to South Korea, arresting 63 defectors and two South Koreans who were assisting them, China revealed its diplomatic intention to no longer care about South Korea's feelings. At the time, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue openly criticized the Korean government and the Korean Embassy in Beijing, saying that "certain nations and foreign embassies" were harboring people who had illegally entered China.
When, finally, China progressed from diplomatic insolence to imperialist arrogance last year when it attempted to distort the history of the Goguryo kingdom, our diplomatic authorities were satisfied to secure a "verbal agreement.Ħħ But China does not appear to be doing anything to suspend its distortion of Goguryo history.
After the violent breakup of the lawmakers' press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan angrily called for the National Assemblymen to apologize. That China is applying "foreign journalist regulations" completely unbecoming international standards to Korean lawmakers -- the representatives of the Korean people -- shows that China's diplomatic insolence toward us knows no bounds.
The Korean government is practicing "small country diplomacy" by humbling itself before China. Our authorities are offering many excuses. "Since China is a socialist nation, there is nothing that can be done," is one favorite. "China never listens to anything you tell it," is another "You can't provoke China while the North Korean nuclear issue is still pending," and "In a conflict with China, we would suffer more," are also common.
Seoul says what it wants to the U.S. and Japan but insists on its pussyfooting "quiet diplomacy" with China alone. It is about time that changed.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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