Dastardly Chinese Try to Claim Paektusan!

Update:   Yup — called it. The netizens’ charge of  the ChiCom lines was repulsed,  and the South  Korean government leads the  panicky flight … like 1951 all over again.  North Korea, whose physical boundaries are at the center of the dispute  (more), is no doubt preparing its latest draft North-South statement on Tokdo.  So what do the Chinese know that we don’t?

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It’s pretty thin gruel if you read the report, but on the other hand, China is in a much better position to grab Paektusan than Japan is to grab Tokdo, and much more likely to actually do it.  Plus, if Korea lost Paektusan, it might actually miss it.

Seoul and Beijing have been at odds in the past over Chinese claims to about 400,000 square kilometers (154,440 square miles) of territory that is roughly centered on Mount Paekdu.  Beijing has claimed the area is “historically Chinese,” but this assertion has irked Seoul as it includes ancient Manchurian kingdoms, such as Goguryeo and a successor state called Balhae, as being part of China’s history.

I wonder how many VANKers will go to MOPP-4 and bounding overwatch over this one.  Prediction:  few.  For one thing,  the fact that  Paektu is split between  China and North Korea undermines  the North’s claim as the authentic bearer of  Korea’s nationalist standard.  For another, no one believes China would just sit by quietly and allow itself to become the object of netizen “cyberterrorism,” which is a creative pretext for censorship if I’ve ever seen one.  South Koreans may attack the United States and Japan freely, but China would do what  it did when the Dalai Lama asked for a visa:  it would exercise its veto.

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