Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
Envoy wary of creating Asian version of NATO
China, Korea are neighbors, he stresses
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Chinese Ambassador to Korea Xing Haiming speaks during an interview with The Korea Times and its sister paper, Hankook Ilbo, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and China, at the Chinese Embassy in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, Aug. 2. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-suk
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming is highly critical of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit held in late June, calling NATO a product of the Cold War.
“The NATO summit distorted facts and characterized China as a 'systemic challenge to Euro-Atlantic security,' which is wrongful,” he said during an interview with The Korea Times and its sister newspaper Hankook Ilbo on Aug. 2 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China.
During the NATO summit, leaders of the member countries for the first time identified China as a “systemic challenge to Euro-Atlantic security” in NATO's key strategic concept document that sets its military and security strategy.
President Yoon Suk-yeol attended the NATO summit and held sideline meetings with some other attending leaders.
The Chinese envoy stopped short of criticizing the president for his trip to the NATO summit, but claimed the meetings facilitated confrontation between China and Europe, instead of peace.
Xing was also wary of the creation of an Asian collective security alliance similar to NATO.
“We must be cautious about the creation of an Asian version of NATO,” he said when asked to elaborate on the comments he made during a seminar held in Seoul in late June, saying that both China and South Korea suffered a lot as the consequence of Cold War-driven confrontation in the region.
The Chinese envoy blamed the media and internet for having aggravated the public opinions of the two countries.
“People there maliciously distorted facts or wrote sensational stories to gain popularity and increase traffic for their own sake,” he said.
But criticisms of NATO aside, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between South Korea and China, the Chinese ambassador emphasized the importance of strengthening bilateral relations in light of security and people-to-people exchanges.
"China and [South] Korea are close neighbors. We can't and don't move away from each other and that is why we have been close with each other for thousands of years," he said.
Having arrived in South Korea as China's top envoy in January 2020, Xing is an expert on the Korean Peninsula who studied at Sariwon Agricultural University in North Korea and served in both North and South Korea as a diplomat.
"It makes me emotional as I look back on the 30 years of China-Korea relations. I've been in Seoul as counsellor and deputy head of mission and now back as ambassador. I consider South Korea as my second home and I have many friends here," he said.
The ambassador said he hopes to bridge the people of China and South Korea, especially at a time when South Korean and Chinese sentiment for each other is worsening.
"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been difficult for the people of China and South Korea to make exchanges and they have been getting information mainly through media and the internet, where false information is prevalent," Xing said.
"It has been stopped for about three years, but once we resume exchanges, I expect the effect will be explosive. [South] Koreans can visit China to see the legacy of activists Ahn Jung-geun and Yun Bong-gil and the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai, realizing how Chinese and [South] Korean people have helped each other.”