China Points Its Korea Rage South, Not North
In the months leading up to North Korea’s acceleration of missile testing, authorities in Beijing whipped up public outrage. The main object of this indignation isn’t Pyongyang but Seoul, which has angered Beijing by deploying a U.S. missile defense system to protect itself from the North’s ire. Beijing fears the powerful radar of the system known as Thaad, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, will snoop on its own missile forces. And so it has registered its anger in what looks like coordinated retaliation against South Korea involving multiple state actors. The media sets the political tone and gets the public fired up; government agencies appear behind a boycott of South Korean goods; and local officials all the way down to health and safety inspectors harass South Korea businesses.
