Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology John Tsang, who chaired the recent WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, went off on both the Korean protesters and the Korean government in a local newspaper, according to the Dongnip Shinmun.
The secretary questioned whether the protesters who came to his city were really farmers. "I understand the current contraction in the Korean agricultural industry is because there are a lot of old farmers, but most of the protest team that came to Hong Kong appear to be in the prime of their lives," he said.
Then he said, "As Korean rice is five times as expensive as rice in Hong Kong, Korean farmers are receiving sufficient protection from their government… That the Korean government is demanding other countries to open their markets for industrial goods while protecting its own market for agricultural goods makes for unfair trade relations."
The NYT, meanwhile, discusses the diplomatic mess developing between Hong Kong, China and Korea as a result of this mess:
All but three of the protesters charged after the demonstration are South Korean, and their case has drawn considerable attention at home, with three of the country’s most famous movie and soap opera stars issuing a recent appeal for their release. South Koreans are already resentful about China’s tough treatment of refugees from North Korea, many of whom have been repatriated to face long prison terms and even execution.
Just to note, while it may be true that many South Koreans are resentful about China’s treatment of refugees, whether or not the individuals involved in this mess–or their supporters–are the ones resentful about the North Korean refugee issue is a matter for debate. I should also note that while the "Hong Kong 11" have been big news in Korea, that news has not been entirely positive. Koreans, generally speaking, might be used to the kind of behavior engaged in by the "farmers" in Hong Kong, but that doesn’t mean the public at large is proud of it. And the Korean Peasants League weren’t exactly media darlings before they left for Hong Kong.
Then there is Hemlock’s observations (hat tip to Simon):
To take his mind off it, Odell asks me a simple but profound question. "Koreans… What the fuck?" I give him the country??s history in a nutshell. First, it was repeatedly invaded by the Japanese, then it was repeatedly invaded by the Mongols, then it was repeatedly invaded by the Chinese, then it was repeatedly invaded by the Manchus, then it got one big, maybe-they??ll-get-the-message-this-time invasion from the Japanese again, and in 1950 it invaded itself. This experience, I explain, has made these people the proud and noble mouth-frothing xenophobes we all know and love today, threatening to send hordes of vicious peasant warriors to Hong Kong if our Government does not honour their birthright as sons of the Hermit Kingdom, namely immunity from laws against assaulting policewomen with bamboo poles. Odell thinks about it. "Maybe it’s the other way around," he suggests. "Maybe they kept on getting invaded because they??re assholes."
Oh my.
4 Comments
Hemlock is a bit harsh there, but “South Koreans are already resentful about China’s tough treatment of refugees from North Korea” gives too much credit to the majority of the ROK citizens.
Where is the resentment?
I have grown too tired of this “woe is Korea — history of countless invasions”.
Does it actually match history?
2nd question — Does it make Korea special in the world of peoples?
I think the answer to both is a big — No.
The last few years, I’ve had the great luxury of branching out my reading to other areas, espeically places I wanted to learn more about which I couldn’t before, and one of the books I’m reading now is The Greatness that was Babylon — which is an academic study of the ancient civilizations that were Bablyonia and Assyria.
Two entities that were great empires in their regions, but also a region that was — what — trampled on by countless invasions and blah blah blah.
You could say this just helps prove Korea’s point, since the same area is being trampled on again — making it just two unique areas in the greater world — but then jump to another area — The great homeland of the most modern colonial empires — Western Europe.
If you read any general history of that territory, or the individual nation-states of today that cover areas where different kingdoms (and peoples) ebbed and flowed over the centuries — what do you find?
Many, many, many, many examples of other nations or migrant bands of masses of people flowing back and forth here and there with plenty of bloodshed, death, and mayhem.
To pick a topic, read about the Vikings in Europe. Anybody who loves PC games should be able to relate to that….
It is what we call “history.”
The idea that poor little Korea is some aberration from the global norm, that its “5,000 years of invasion and oppression” have made it some special, pitable case justifying this or that current aspect of Korean culture, is hogwash.
But they have so successfully sold the idea, it is repeated as something etched in stone by Koreans and non-Koreans alike whenever Korean history is mentioned — no matter who is mentioning it — those with no knowledge of Korea, some knowlege, or people who have spent a whole career studying it.
It really boggles the mind.
It is mentioned so much, and taken at face value so much, it is down right irritating.
Yes, there are instances where the territory of Korea was attacked — both by nation-state actors such as different dynastyies in China and Japan or when the tribes were able to get their act together in Mongolia or Manchuria, and by those nomadic tribes and Japanese pirates —
but, the very same type of nomadic peoples marched across Europe — often setting up shop permanently in this and that region —
and perhaps that is the best way to get into the second point I wanted to make —-
Korea does boast of one thing that is much more true than the “poor me….oppressed like virtually no other in the world” stuff — its genetic and cultural homogeneity.
How do you think Korea managed this feat?
They and outsiders clearly understand it is different than in many places in the world.
Why do you think that is?
(First, I think if we dug into this more deeply too, you’d find more of the nomdic blood from Manchuria mixing in the native Korean gene pool, but that is just a guess on my part with just a tiny note here and there from my reading to spark the curiosity I don’t have the language skills to dig into more….)
But anyway, Korea is more homogenous than other regions —- why? —
” have grown too tired of this “woe is Korea — history of countless invasions”.
Does it actually match history?
2nd question — Does it make Korea special in the world of peoples?
I think the answer to both is a big — No”
I was just about to pounce on that historical assumption, but you did a great job beating me to it, usinkorea.
“Maybe it’s the other way around,” he suggests. LMFAO