Opinion | Exploring Korea's deep Sinophobia
By Tom Fowdy
South Korea was one of the countries, that follow the lead of the US, and rushed to impose travel restrictions on inbound Chinese travellers. While it should be taken into consideration that Seoul has always been serious in its approach to covid-19, more so than any western country (people here after all still wear masks in public life), the measures felt as if they were motivated by something more, that is a deep underlying racism and negative sentiment against Chinese people at large.
Last week, Chinese netizens were outraged after footage emerged of Chinese travellers at South Korean airports being forced to wear "yellow labels" to single them out against other passengers. Just to clarify, as a resident of Korea, it was standard procedure during the peak of the pandemic for the airport to force you to wear a label if you were being subject to quarantine measures, and they would also put arbitrary stickers on the front of your passport too.
The difference is now, however, that Chinese travellers are being singled out by South Korea, while other nationalities, even if they have covid, are allowed to enter the country unfettered. At the height of the pandemic, US military personnel were allowed to skip quarantine requirements, and there was little public anger about it when they kept causing outbreaks. This contrast illustrates how fear of China is being weaponized in South Korea, as part of its recent descent into rampant Sinophobia.
A recent article published in The Diplomat magazine, titled "South Koreans Have the World's Most Negative Views of China. Why?" outlines that South Korean people have an affixed dislike of all things China which goes beyond other countries, that includes as the survey finds, contempt not only for its government, but its people too (in sharp contrast to other countries) it isn't simply an anti-communist issue. This is a phenomenon which has exacerbated itself in recent years, with opinions having been positive before 2016. The question is, how did Korea come to dislike China so quickly, and for that matter, so aggressively?
The Korean peninsula is a region that has for thousands of years, been strategically contested, and encroached upon by larger powers. For thousands of years, it was a tributary state of China and as such, has developed a common cultural overlap and heritage with the country. Upon the decline of the Qing Dynasty however, Korea found itself in a new world of competing nation-states and empires, which soon saw it face annexation by Japan, and then in the Cold War, the trauma of national division with the southern half becoming dominated by the United States.
It was in the upheavals of this modern era that modern Korean nationalism emerged, which of course rejected the notion of subservience to China as the so-called "centre of the world" and placed emphasis on Korea as a self-determined nation in its own right. This historical affiliation with China became described in Korean as "Sadaejuui" (사대주의) (事大主義) which literally means "serving the great" which was an aspect of the Sinocentric world it existed in. However, Korea's development into a modern nation grew to reject this understanding (at least in reference to China).
Because of these close nit historical and cultural affiliations with China, Koreans have a "nationalistic sensitivity" towards anything which may be perceived to render their nation subordinate or secondary to China, which is also a product of the country's historical traumas, loss of sovereignty and thus fierce emphasis upon independence (North Korea is merely a more extreme version of this). While this pattern of thought can also apply to Japan too, it means different "trigger events" can create waves of nationalistic backlashes against things very easily.
The current wave of hostility between South Korea and China might be said to be a product of Beijing's rise as a world power, which has of course whipped up these sensitivities as China's role and presence increases. Geopolitical analysts in turn attribute the conflict between South Korea and China over the THAAD missile system, commencing in 2016. However, in light of the former factor, the sentiment rise of China has created a series of new cultural conflicts whereby China has been perceived to "claim" things which are otherwise seen as authentically Korean. One such thing is Kimchi, but sometimes these sensitivities are projection. For example, in the 2022 Winter Olympics, China used a Korean wearing a hanbok to demonstrate the Korean minority as one of China's 56 officially recognized groups. This created a nationalistic backlash in Korea. Or on the other hand, a historical television drama came under fire because it used Chinese dumplings, and resulted in a sponsorship and consumer boycott. The current Yoon Seok-Yeol Presidency also utilized anti-Chinese sentiment to win election the previous year.
Yet despite this, this grassroots hostility to Beijing seldom translates into policy outcomes, this covid saga is the exception as opposed to the rule, that's because in conclusion, the reality that South Korea remains China's neighbour and close economic partner remains a sobering factor. China is rising in a globalized world, and Koreans are reacting to that defensively in the grassroots, attempting to navigate the crosshairs in a way which doesn't subordinate itself.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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