No red faces?: Chinese give Seoul mayor wrong portrait, take it back

Surprise gift: Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, left, holds a portrait from Guangdong Province governor Ma Xingrui at Seoul City Hall, Friday. The portrait turned out to be that of Lee Jae-myung, governor of Gyeonggi Province, not Park. From the look on Park's face, he didn't realize what went wrong. Yonhap

By Oh Young-jin

If somebody believes that Guangdong Province is being groomed to rival Silicon Valley and is ready to plunk money into it, think again. The Chinese rise may not be as promising as thought.

The Chinese province governor Ma Xingrui, airspace engineer, handed over a portrait as gift during his meeting with Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Friday. But it turned out not to be of Park but of Lee Jae-myung, governor of Gyeonggi Province.

It may be passed off as honest mistake but what made it a farce was the Chinese kept this portrait a secret, telling Seoul city that it had a "surprise" gift. The exchange of gifts was originally scheduled for Thursday but was delayed at the request of the Chinese. It proved a surprise but of the wrong kind.

At first, Park apparently didn't know the portrait belonged to Lee, his potential political rival for the 2022 presidential election, holding it with the Guangdong governor for photographers.

Seoul city officials said the Chinese apologized and took the portrait back.

They said Guangdong Province gave Lee's photo to the painter, mistakenly believing it was Park's. So with the portrait taken back, Park was left giftless.

The Chinese delegation is now scheduled to meet Gov. Lee of Gyeonggi Province. It is said the Chinese have prepared some craftwork for him.

What if the delegation gave the portrait to Lee? It would make for a double surprise ― for Park and Lee ― as the Chinese saying goes, "Kill two birds with one stone" for achieving two goals with one effective move. Then, there is another Chinese saying: One question reveals 10 secrets.

In other words, this "happening" reveals the competence of one of the powers that be, once Chinese leader Xi Jinping's "one belt, one road" initiative gets off the ground. By the way, would Xi laugh about it, if he heard about it?