By Kang Hyun-kyung
Chinese people think that South Korea and the United States are more responsible for the sinking of the warship Cheonan than North Korea, a recent public opinion survey found.
Rep. Gu Sang-chan of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) said Thursday that another poll of Chinese and Koreans showed a deep perception gap over bilateral relations between people in the two countries.
During the National Assembly’s annual audit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Rep. Gu said the vast majority of Chinese people thought Korea-China relations were good, but Koreans considered the ties as not working.
His staffers conducted three surveys of 703 people ― 300 Chinese living in China, 285 Chinese students in Korea and 128 Korean students attending Seoul National University ― to see if there were any meaningful differences in their attitudes toward the maritime tragedy and Korea-China relations.
Twenty-two percent of Chinese said South Korea was responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan near the maritime border in the West Sea on March 26. The tragedy killed 46 sailors.
A multinational investigation team found that North Korea torpedoed the ship.
Sixteen percent answered the United States was responsible for it, while 11 percent blamed North Korea.
“The implication of the perception gap between Koreans and Chinese says that the foreign ministry needs to expand its people-to-people contacts and cultural exchange programs,” he said.