The Malaise Deepens

You don�t have to read pieces like this to know that Korea is in a funk . . . just call your Korean friends and family and ask them.  The economy is gloomy; the new transportation system is gloomy; the news is gloomy; even the weather is gloomy. 
 
The mildly encouraging side of this, however, is the sense of political realism that lies beneath the xenophobic veneer.  Korea is beginning to realize that the American empire is voluntary, but China�s isn�t.  For all the lack of sophistication the younger generation shows about realpolitik, the Koreans have quickly sensed the real significance of the Koguryo story.  It�s not just an emotional battle over history.  When China says that something was once part of China, what they really mean is that something will be part of China in the not-too-distant future.  The hacker story�which the government seems to be pinning on China for reasons they probably know better than me�has helped to gel those concerns among the Korean public. 
 
In fact, neither Taiwan, nor Tibet, nor East Turkestan has historically been any more a part of China than Korea, but China claimed each them as part of the ancient realm immediately before laying plans to digest them.  For centuries, of course, all of China�s neighbors were expected to show their deference toward the �mother country� at the center of the universe.  This applied to such non-Chinese areas as the Ryukyu kingdom on Okinawa, Vietnam, Mongolia, and even India; their kings were long expected to send ambassadors to the Forbidden City laden with tribute to kowtow to the emperor.