BEIJING — One day the system could destroy North Korean missiles in mid-flight, a remarkable feat of military might and technical prowess. But so far, its main victims have been South Korean pop stars, cosmetics companies, and TV shows.
Washington and Seoul plan to deploy the U.S.-developed Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system on South Korean soil before the end of the year, a long-envisioned response to North Korea’s repeated missile tests and threats to attack South Korea, Japan and the United States.
Yet Beijing, a longtime ally of Pyongyang, sees the system as part of a U.S. strategy to contain China, since it could also be deployed against Chinese missiles. And as THAAD’s deployment date draws near, its denunciations have reached fever pitch, spurring retaliations online and in the streets.
Chinese authorities have denied visas to South Korean pop stars who frequently perform on the mainland; rejected imports of South Korean cosmetics; and scrubbed at least five enormously popular South Korean TV shows — some with hundreds of millions of Chinese viewers — from Chinese video streaming sites.
“We don’t have to make the country bleed, but we’d better make it hurt,” the Global Times, a Chinese state-run tabloid, said in an editorial on Wednesday.
The measures have stirred anxiety in South Korea’s business community, upset Chinese TV fans and cast uncertainty over the future of the China-South Korea relationship, which has enjoyed relative stability since the 1990s, enabling huge amounts of transnational commerce and migration. China is by far South Korea’s largest trading partner.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said that China — angered by North Korea’s recent missile tests — now faces strained relations with both Koreas for the first time in recent memory. “This is quite bad, in the long term, for the diplomatic security environment in Northeast Asia,” he said.
Beijing has issued two “solemn representations” to Seoul over the impending deployment, and the People’s Daily, a Communist party mouthpiece, said in an editorial that Beijing could potentially sever diplomatic ties.
South Korea plans to deploy the defensive missile system “before the end of the year,” said Moon Sang-gyun, a spokesman for the South Korean defense ministry.