Xinhua News Agency reported on the 6th that China will send high-level leaders to attend the inauguration ceremony of South Korean President-elect Yin Xiyue. However, South Korea's performance in recent days is not very friendly to China: first, it participated in the NATO cyber warfare center, and even Japan did not dare to do so, and second, it said that it would deploy more THAAD anti-missile missiles.
On May 5, the National Intelligence Agency of the Republic of Korea (NCS) announced that it has joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Center of Excellence for Cooperative Cyber Defense (CCDCOE) as a full member on behalf of the Republic of Korea. This is the first time that an Asian country has become a full member of the organization.
The "Center of Excellence for Cooperative Cyber Defense" was established in May 2008, and the National State Of The Republic of Korea submitted a letter of intent to join as early as 2019, and from 2020 onwards, it attended the world's largest cyber exercise "Lock Shield" hosted by the "Center of Excellence for Cooperative Cyber Defense" for two consecutive years. After South Korea joined, the agency's full membership grew to 32, including 27 nato members and 5 other non-members. But the main goal of the Collaborative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence is to improve network security and doesn't involve intelligence sharing. In fact, South Korea has long signed a variety of agreements with the US military to share intelligence. Therefore, south Korea's joining this organization has little impact on China.
But South Korea's other move may have a greater impact on China: it may allow the United States to deploy more THAAD systems in South Korea. According to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency, a U.S. State Department spokesman said on May 4 that the United States may deploy more THAAD missiles to South Korea if south Korea's incoming new government makes a request. Mr. Yoon's cabinet is already clamoring for more THAAD missiles to be deployed against North Korea's new missiles.
THAAD missile system is mainly used to intercept the end of ballistic missiles, its maximum interception altitude is about 150 kilometers, the maximum interception distance is about 300 kilometers, the normal defense radius is only about 200 kilometers, deployed on the territory of South Korea is not a big threat to China, but its supporting AN/TPY-2 X-band phased array radar is one of the most powerful land-based mobile anti-missile detection radars in the world. The maximum detection distance for targets with a reflected area of 1 square meter (the reflected area of a typical ballistic missile warhead) is about 1200 km. Obviously, the defense radius of the THAAD missile itself cannot even protect the US base in Japan, and the deployment intention of the United States is obviously not missile defense, but the use of this X-band radar to recont the air conditions in eastern China and the Russian Far East. This is detrimental to China's interests.
Perhaps mainland netizens still have an impression of the "THAAD incident" that occurred in 2017. In the past few years, then-South Korean President Park Geun-hye faced a series of scandals, including the sinking of the Sewol passenger ship, the Crony Gate incident, the bribery incident in Sung-chung, etc. At that time, her northern neighbor tested missiles, so in order to divert public attention, Park Geun-hye actively promoted the deployment of the THAAD missile system on South Korea. South Korean chaebol Lotte Group provided its golf course in Seongju to the South Korean government for the deployment of the THAAD missile system. Although Park Geun-hye eventually stepped down due to the scandal, THAAD's deployment was formed, and President Moon Jae-in, who succeeded her, could not stop it, and finally a battalion of THAAD systems was deployed in March 2017.
For this move that seriously affected China's security, China has fought back against South Korea at the economic level, with Rakuten Group's business in China shrinking significantly, dozens of supermarket chains closing one after another, South Korean entertainment programs disappearing from Chinese television, and the number of Chinese tourists to South Korea greatly reduced. In the end, Moon Jae-in promised not to expand the deployment of "THAAD", and Sino-South Korean relations gradually warmed up.
If South Korea deploys more THAAD systems this time, China will inevitably have to hit the South Korean economy again. China has made breakthroughs in some high-end manufacturing in recent years, such as LCD screens, high-end mobile phones, flash memory chip manufacturing, automobiles, etc., which are the areas on which Korean industry depends for survival. In the process of upgrading China's industry to the middle and high-end, it is first necessary to PK the Korean industry, if this time South Korea is not interesting, it will kick more Korean companies out of the Chinese market.
Yin Xiyue wants to maintain a situation of "political cold and economic heat" in China, while earning Chinese money and opposing China, there is no such beautiful thing. We walked and watched.