A double Korean headache for China
Politics & Current Affairs
Top politics and current affairs news for March 3, 2017. Part of the daily The China Projectย news roundup โClickbait about Chinaโs โparliament of billionairesโโ
-
China is trying to punish South Korea by keeping its tourists awayย / Quartz
China is continuing its retaliation against Seoulโs decision to deploy the American THAADย missile defense system. After denying applicationsย of Korean pop stars who want to perform in China, haltingย a theme park project in Shenyang by Korean conglomerate Lotto, and recently blockingย access to South Korean music and dramas, Beijing has apparently banned Chinese tour groups from visiting South Korea. According to Korean state media Yonhap, โChinaโs National Tourism Administration (CNTA) has told travel agencies to stop selling group packages and offering free trips from Beijing to South Korea.โ In addition to orders regarding tour groups organized by travel agencies, CNTA also released a statementย (in Chinese), saying that โin regards to the increasing number of cases where Chinese tourists were denied access to Jeju island, Chinese tourists should be aware of risks of traveling abroad and make careful choices of destination.โ
Chinaโs relations with North Korea have also been strained: North Korean missile tests and the assassination in Malaysia of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half brother of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, are giving Beijing what Theย New York Timesย calls a double headacheย (paywall). The Timesย quotes Cheng Xiaohe ๆๆๆฒณ, an associate professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing: โOne thing after another is happeningโฆ Not good things โ all bad things.โ
- Route to more power for Chinaโs Xi runs through remote Guizhouย / Reuters
- China quietly abandoning bid for โnew model of great power relationsโ with U.S.ย / Foreign Policy
- Opinion: Why China may want to repair its fraught relations with the Vaticanย / The Conversation
- BBC crew attacked in China and forced to sign confessionย / The Guardian
