China’s state-run Global Times propaganda outlet celebrated reports from South Korea on Sunday indicating that police had opened an investigation into an anti-China conservative group for “insulting the Chinese embassy.”
The Times, citing pro-regime “experts,” praised leftist South Korean President Lee Jae-myung for having “sent positive signals of friendliness toward China” and the alleged police investigation as a vote of confidence from the Lee government towards the Communist Party. The South Korean reports do not indicate that Lee is directly involved in the investigation in any way, though he recently called for government measures to silence alleged “fake news” on YouTube, which some polls indicate as many as half of South Koreans use to gather news.
The South Korean news outlets Yonhap, the Korea JoongAng Daily, and Chosun Ilbo all reported that police had called in for questioning the leadership of a civil society group known as “Freedom University” for actions that allegedly took place during a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in Seoul on July 22. The group, which is right-wing and vocally supports ousted conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol, organized a rally to condemn alleged “election fraud” on that day. South Korea held a special presidential election on June 3 to replace Yoon, who was impeached and removed from office for attempting to establish military rule in December. South Korea was run by five presidents in the six months that followed, culminating in the leftist Lee’s victory.
Yoon had attempted to impose martial law on the grounds that the political party Lee leads, the Democratic Party, was obstructing his agenda in the National Assembly to such an extent that it had essentially derailed the regular functions of the government. Yoon also alleged that unspecified outside communist forces were threatening the nation, a claim his supporters have since interpreted to mean that the governments of North Korea and China were engaging in illicit interference in sovereign affairs.
Freedom University and similar groups have also extended their accusations to include claims that the Chinese government meddled in the special election on Lee’s behalf. Freedom University regularly publishes videos on YouTube calling Lee a “fake president” and demanding action to ensure election integrity.
During the July 22 rally, members of the group reportedly protested against “election fraud” in the June 3 election. Some have been accused of ripping apart a Chinese flag featuring the face of genocidal dictator Xi Jinping, according to JoongAng. Also — pivotally from a legal standpoint — the flag that the group allegedly destroyed included an image of the Chinese ambassador to Seoul. As a result, the newspaper relayed, local Seoul police summoned the leadership of Freedom University, or Jayu Daehak, for questioning. The questioning was reportedly scheduled to take place on Monday.
As the Global Times gleefully noted, insulting a foreign diplomat dispatched to South Korea is a criminal offense in the country, punishable by up to three years in prison.
The July 22 rally appeared to have caused some problems for the group as they organized the next weekend near a post office, specifying in its coverage of the protest that authorities prevented them from organizing outside of the Chinese embassy. The July 29 protest condemned “China Lee” and called for his ouster, as well as featuring large numbers of American flags and signs reading “fake president.”
In addition to celebrating Lee for generally appearing positive towards China, the Global Times‘s “experts” observed that the alleged police questioning “also reflects that the current South Korean government does not support the actions of some domestic forces to promote anti-China sentiment or undermine bilateral relations.”
The Chinese outlet added, apparently corroborating concerns of foreign interference in Korea’s affairs, that Dai Bing, the Chinese ambassador to Seoul, had in fact pressured the government to act against “anti-China conspiracy theories” about foreign interference.
The Chinese Communist Party is among the most notorious of the world’s state entities for meddling in foreign affairs and attempting to erode the sovereignty of foreign countries. In one of the most chilling examples of the Chinese government acting inappropriately on foreign soil, a 2022 exposé by the organization Safeguard Defenders found that the Communist Party was operating dozens of illegal “police stations” around the world, including one in nearly every major American city, that it used to intimidate anti-communist voices into silence.
Seoul was among the major international cities in which China allegedly opened an illegal police station to persecute dissidents.
Independent of any Chinese regime activity, Lee himself has hinted at a desire to silence dissenting voices in the country. In remarks during a cabinet meeting published last week, Lee griped that the government had to act to “fundamentally prevent” the spread of “fake news” on YouTube, where many South Korean conservative groups are active. Lee was reportedly interested in imposing “punitive damages” on offenders of his “fake news” restrictions, independent of enforcing the already existing laws against insulting foreign diplomats.
“There are too many instances where fake news is used to earn money,” Lee was quoted as saying at the time. “Resorting to illegal actions to earn money should be fundamentally prevented,” he added, demanding “measures to fundamentally prevent the spread of fake news through online platforms, like YouTube.”
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