Chinese Daily Issues Warning to Korea and Japan

“Japan and Korea, don’t be the scapegoats of the conflict between China and the U.S.”

So said the Global Times, the sister newspaper of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, in an editorial Thursday. “While jumping on the speedboat of China, Korea and Japan want to rely on the U.S. militarily to control China, which seems like strategic schizophrenia,” the Global Times said.

The editorial mentioned contradictory statements by Japan’s prime minister and ambassador to Beijing. New Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, “U.S. forces in Japan must keep China in check,” while Japan’s new ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa said, “Japan’s revival depends on China.”

The Global Times said Seoul is also inconsistent in its attitude toward Beijing, noting that Korea asked the U.S. to get the USS George Washington to participate in a military drill in the Yellow Sea while saying Korean investment in China must continue.

“It remains to be seen how long the change of face of the two countries will last,” the newspaper said. “But one sure thing is that relying on China economically and checking China militarily with U.S. forces will make the integration of Northeast Asia difficult. Those who will be in the most trouble are Japan and Korea, which are stuck between China and the U.S.”

“Korea and Japan are geographically at a disadvantage if a conflict breaks out between China and the U.S. Despite this, Korea and Japan are trying to keep China in check by voluntarily embracing the U.S. in the apparent belief that they can balance the confrontation between China and the U.S. over the long term. This is very risky, however, under a historical perspective and is likely to fail in the future.”

The editorial added, “Korea, China and Japan have many political and economic reasons to stay equal, but Korea and Japan’s balancing act against China by borrowing U.S. power means abandoning equality of the three countries.”

“In particular, this act makes the two countries scapegoats of a conflict between China and the U.S., recognizing themselves as being on the lower rung of the ladder than China.”

The Global Times ran a front-page story on the uncertain participation of the USS George Washington in the Korea-U.S. drill because of the Chinese people’s strong opposition.

“The drill will likely be postponed to next month,” it said. “Korea seems to know that its behavior is pushing itself near the red line of Chinese minds.”

A survey of 37,000 Chinese found that 96.8 percent believe the participation of the USS George Washington in the Yellow Sea drill is a threat to China, the paper added.