China's top diplomat urges Japan and South Korea to know their 'roots' | The Japan Times

China's top diplomat urges Japan and South Korea to know their 'roots' | The Japan Times



China's top diplomat urges Japan and South Korea to know their 'roots'

China's top diplomat, Wang Yi (right), speaks at a trilateral forum in Qingdao, China, on Monday. | KYODO


BY ALYSSA CHEN


STAFF WRITER

SHAREJul 5, 2023

HONG KONG – China’s top diplomat has taken an implicit swipe at Japan and South Korea for strengthening trilateral ties with the U.S. and urged his country’s two neighbors to remember their “roots” and work together for the benefit of Asia and the world.

In a video shared by Chinese state-run media, Wang Yi told Japanese and South Korean attendants at a trilateral forum on Monday that most Westerners can’t tell Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans apart.


“No matter how blonde our hair is dyed or how sharp we change our nose, we can never become a European or American, we can never become a Westerner,” Wang said. “We must know where our roots lie.”

Wang’s comments on the sidelines of the International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation in the eastern port city of Qingdao came as Seoul and Tokyo grow more aligned with Washington over their shared concerns about China’s assertiveness and nuclear-armed North Korea repeated missile launches.

In a veiled criticism of the U.S., Wang said that “some major powers outside the region” are to be blamed for playing up differences and stoking contention among three countries.

“Seeking geopolitical gains, a certain major power outside the region has deliberately exaggerated our ideological differences, organized all kinds of cliques for the purpose of excluding others and tried to replace cooperation with confrontation and unity with division,” he was quoted as saying in a statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry.

Wang’s remark about Westerners were hailed on Chinese social media for being steadfast amid mounting pressure from the U.S. and its allies, but they attracted criticism from U.S. officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel.

“It is not skin color or hair color that create allegiances as Wang Yi suggests, but common values and interests that forge true alliances,” he wrote on a Twitter post.

Wang also addressed the opening ceremony of the forum, calling for Tokyo and Seoul to “promote inclusive Asian values, cultivate strategic autonomy, safeguard regional unity and stability, resist the Cold War mentality and avoid coercion of bullying and hegemony,” the statement said.

“The fate of the region and our countries is firmly in our own hands,” he added.

In an apparent bid to encourage the resumption of trilateral ties, Wang said the forum will “send a clear signal” to “regroup and restart” cooperation between the three neighbors.

The trilateral event has been held annually by the Seoul-based Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat since 2011 as a way of fostering peace and common prosperity among China, Japan, and South Korea.

The latest instance of China’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy comes as the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has sped up efforts to bring together like-minded allies and partners, notably South Korea and Japan, to counter China’s growing technological and military might.

The U.S. and Japan have both repeatedly emphasized the importance of “peace and stability” near self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, while South Korea has condemned any attempt to use force to change the status quo there. The moves have elicited swift condemnation from Beijing.

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