The China Veto

[Updated below]   For those who still doubt that the South Korean government would bow to another government’s sensitivities to cancel an artistic performance — witness the debate and denial over the censorship of “Yoduk Story” — I suppose we can now put those doubts to rest.

On January 7, several major South Korean media published editorials that criticized the Korean government for kowtowing to the Chinese communist regime by canceling the New Tang Dynasty’s (NTDTV) New Year Spectacular in Seoul. The criticizing media included South Korea’s most widely distributed news paper Chosun Ilbo and the Kyung Hyang Daily News, which is very influential among Korean intellectuals.

The show was cancelled just one day before its original planned date. NTDTV stated on its website that the National Theater of Korea cancelled the show because of pressure from the South Korea Ministry of Culture, which in turn has been directly pressured by the Chinese communist regime behind the scene.

The initial reason given by the theater for the cancellation was that the Chinese communist regime, who had been protesting very strongly to the the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, claimed that NTDTV was an organization hostile to China. The Ministry of Culture issued an official document requesting the cancellation of the show. Later on, the Theater retracted that “the Ministry of Culture had never issued an official document” and that the show was cancelled because NTDTV did not follow the contract.

So let me see if I understand this:  completely fictional, sensationalized propa-tainment like “The Host” and  “No Gun Ri” receives government subsidies and protection, while South Korea shuts down an apolitical Chinese New Year festival and “Yoduk Story.”   We may have  the first two documented cases of the Nuclear Heckler’s Veto.

Update:  More Putinization from the Roh Administration:

President Roh Moo-hyun on Tuesday instructed his Cabinet to open an investigation into whether South Korean media organizations are colluding to distort his government’s policies.

In an unusually bitter criticism against local media, the president said Korean news organizations pose the strongest resistance to his government’s society-wide reform programs.

How will “progressives” like the new official contempt from free speech  if Lee Myung Bak inherits this extraordinary new power?  Something tells me that Lee won’t take a very restrained approach in throttling his opponents.