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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

620,000 Koreans Call for End to CCP’s ‘Cultural Aggression’ in South Korea

Monday, April 26, 2021

Categories: ASCF News National Preparedness

Comments: 0

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Anti-CCP (Chinese Communist Party) sentiment among the South Korean people is rising.

More than 627,000 Koreans have signed a petition demanding the government cancel a “Chinatown” project in the resort city of Gangwon following last year’s “Han clothing vs. hanbok” and “kimchi” incidents.

On March 29, a petition was registered on the South Korean government’s website asking Gangwon province to cancel its “Chinatown” project.

“Why do we want to build a little China in Korea?” the petition asked. “The public doesn’t understand why we would want to offer Chinese cultural experience on our own land. We resolutely oppose.”

As of the early morning of April 21, the petition had received 627,000 signatures—the highest number of signatures ever received by the Blue House.

On April 16, the Blue House also received another petition calling for the impeachment of Gangwon Governor Choi Moon-soon over his pro-Beijing role in the “Chinatown” project.

Belt and Road Initiative Denounced as Cultural Invasion
The Gangwon “China Town” project is an agreement that was signed in 2019 between the Gangwon government and China, reported the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece the People’s Daily. Under the agreement, China and South Korea are to build a “Chinese complex cultural village” between Hongcheon and Chuncheon, the capital city of Gangwon province. Covering 296 acres, the project is 10 times the size of Incheon’s Chinatown.

In an interview with the People’s Daily in December 2019, Choi described the proposed “Chinese Cultural City” as a “cultural Belt and Road.” South Korean media reported that the project’s official name was “China-Korea Cultural City.”

The project is scheduled to be completed by 2022. However, the project has aroused strong resentment among Koreans, who believe the CCP is carrying out cultural imperialism in Korea to expand its political influence.

“We are opposed to the building of a hotel for Chinese tourists in Gangwon Province, which is the largest historical site in the world with a large number of excavations,” the petition said. “People are upset about losing their culture. We should stand up to China, which is trying to steal our unique culture like kimchi and hanbok.”

Kimchi, Hanbok Disputes
The “kimchi” dispute was sparked by the Global Times, the CCP’s overseas mouthpiece. The Global Times claimed that the CCP was in charge of setting international standards for the “pickled vegetable” industry, and that Korea’s status as the “suzerain state of kimchi” existed “in name only.”

The comments prompted an immediate outcry from South Koreans, who regard kimchi as a sacred food taken with almost every meal. The South Korean government replied that the Chinese standard for international certification is limited to Sichuan pickles, and has nothing to do with Korean kimchi.

In November 2020, Sichuan pickles of China were certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The dispute followed heated debate on the relationship between Han clothing and hanbok among netizens of the two countries. Comic blogger “Old Xian” from mainland China created a series of cartoons about Han clothing. South Korean netizens questioned whether the dress in the picture copied elements of Korea’s hanbok. Chinese netizens, however, said the style had existed in China since the Ming Dynasty and that hanbok itself was “derived from Han clothing.”

In addition, a Korean drama, “Joseon Exorcist,” was accused of distorting Korean history. The inclusion of Chinese elements, such as dumplings, moon cakes, and a Chinese zither, sparked protests in South Korea. The screenwriters were criticized for being pro-CCP and the show was eventually taken off the air.

Moon Jae-in’s Popularity Rating Plummets Amid Rising Anti-CCP Sentiment
Koreans who have a negative view of China—thanks to Beijing’s politics—have risen from 37 percent in 2015 to 75 percent in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has also fallen to its lowest point since he took office.

According to data released by Korean pollsters on April 12, Moon’s latest approval rating was only 33.4 percent.

After the outbreak of CCP virus in Wuhan, China, in early 2020, more than 500,000 Koreans signed a petition demanding the Moon government deny entry to Chinese citizens for pandemic prevention. Meanwhile, 1.45 million people, dissatisfied with Moon’s pro-CCP policies, launched an impeachment petition against him.

“President Moon Jae-in’s policy toward the novel coronavirus shows that he is more like the president of China than the president of the Republic of Korea,” the impeachment document said.

The CCP Helped Elect Moon Jae-in
Since taking office in 2017, Moon has been openly pro-CCP. In 2019, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy anti-ELAB campaign won support from many democratic countries, but South Korea was not among them.

Even under the current of current global backlash against the anti-CCP, led by the United States’s fair trade policies, South Korea is still sitting on the fence, reflected by its unwillingness to participate in the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue” with the United States, India, Japan, and Australia against the CCP’s growing aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.

In February 2019, a former CCP cyber warrior and member of the Korean nonprofit organization “Turn Right” wrote an article saying that the CCP manipulated public opinion to help Moon Jae-in win the presidential election, aiming to make South Korea a CCP ally to compete with the United States.

According to internal documents obtained by The Epoch Times last October, after taking office, Moon set pro-CCP economic policies, elevating the “Saemangeum Seawall” to a project of national political importance, and integrating it into the “Northeast Asia Economic Hub” for cooperation with the CCP so as to strengthen economic and trade relations between South Korea and China. The CCP, on the other hand, uses the partnership to exert influence and control over the Moon administration.

Li Yanming, a U.S. based commentator, said, “At a time of tension in the Indo-Pacific region, the United States is working with its allies and partners to contain the CCP. South Korea used to be an ally of the United States, but Moon’s government is controlled by the CCP and does what Beijing says.

“Now, the anti-CCP sentiment among the Korean people is rising. They openly oppose the pro-CCP behavior of the Moon Jae-in government. The attempt by the CCP to infiltrate Korea has been met with a severe roadblock.”

Photo: A couple wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the CCP virus walks in the rain at the Gyeongbok Palace, the main royal palace during the Joseon Dynasty, in Seoul, South Korea, April 17, 2020. (Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

Link: https://www.theepochtimes.com/620000-koreans-call-for-end-to-ccps-cultural-aggression-in-south-korea_3789802.html

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