As you know, I’ve spent quite a bit of space (probably more than is really fair) ranting about the attitudes of certain segments of South Korean society towards the United States. Well, it seems like I’m not the only one occasionally exasperated by our Korean ally. If this report in USA Today is anything to go by, younger Chinese may be harboring the same kind of resentment vis-a-vis their North Korean comrades. Just a snippet:
But others in the Chinese capital, too young to remember the bitter fighting that raged across the Korean peninsula, are immune to notions of fraternal socialist bonds forged in the ”War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.” Among the best barometers of public opinion are the relatively freewheeling online bulletin boards hosted by Chinese-language Web sites. And, in recent days, unsparing criticisms of North Korea have been multiplying.
”It’s hard to say ‘we love you, North Korea,’ ” one man wrote on the popular Sina.com site.
Several others posted messages criticizing North Korea for taking China’s support for granted. The complaints echoed an article published in June by Chen Qinpin, a writer for Zhi Yin, a lifestyle magazine in Hubei province. A visit this year to the North Korean war museum at Banmendian left him shocked at his host’s attitudes.
The official tour guide ”did not mention anything about the Chinese army fighting in the Korean War, who has sacrificed hundreds of thousands of people’s lives for North Korea, even though after all these years, we haven’t been asking anything in return, and we’re still helping them,” he wrote. ”It makes me feel bad that they are trying to erase this part of the history.”
Read the rest on your own.
