China, The Honored Guest

“Red carpet for the sake of Hu Jintao.”

The French journalism world describes the utter devotion of French President Jacque Chirac to the Chinese President Hu, who officially visited France from January 26 to 29, as this.

Unprecedented, Chirac rushed to the airport to welcome President Hu and held the largest dinner party in order to welcome the national guest. The French government designated 2004 as the “Year of Chinese Culture,” illuminating the Eiffel Tower with a crimson colored light symbolizing China. On Champs-Elysee street, tens of thousands of people participated in the China Festival.

A year and a half ago, a Korean festival was held in Paris. At that time, the biggest festival in France, “Paris Autumn Festival,” invited Korea as its guest of honor. Although there were many Korean culture festivals held in Paris, the light illumination festival on Eiffel Tower and street festival in Champs-Elysee could not be found. Has only France participated in this wave of change alone? At the world economy forum, which was held in Switzerland in advance of Hu’s visit to France, the main subject of the talks was “China.” Foreign news agencies passed on that “the atmosphere was centered on China.” In Britain, the largest China festival was held in London on January 25.

In the recent several years, China is fiercely growing in Europe. The image of the country has changed from “the country that exports the largest amount of illegal immigrants” to “Asia’s emerging dragon.” Le Figaro, one of the daily French newspapers, has published a special section for the Chinese economy titled as “China, don’t be a coward!”

As Korea enjoys silly economic pride, China has exerted great effort to carry out the slow but steady international strategies.

“We should learn about China’s plan, which is prepared to the minutest details, in order to register the ruins of Kokuryo in its territory as theirs on the World Heritage list,” pointed out the Korean representatives of International Council On Monuments and Sites, who recently visited France in accordance with the registration of Kokuryo ruins on the World Heritage list by North Korea.

The image of Korea in the world cannot be improved by only pitching up the voice of “independent diplomacy.” It is time to worry about international strategy rather than national. Although it is slow, it should be steady.