China remains Third World in South Korean minds

The Chinese insisted that the THAAD deployment was aimed at containing China despite Seoul’s explanation that its detection capability was so adjusted as to scan no significant part of China. – AFP

THE 2022 Winter Olympics are underway in Beijing, among the nation’s closest foreign capitals at just some 950km from Seoul, four years after South Korea hosted the PyeongChang Games in Gangwon Province. Sixty-four Korean athletes are competing on snow and ice with the modest goal of ranking 15th or 16th in the medal standing.

Famous movie director Zhang Yimou used a lot of his genius and high technology to add a landmark in the ongoing rise of China, but the opening ceremony Friday night at the “Bird’s Nest” stadium surprised spectators around the world not because of great spectacles but because of their absence. Most impressive was the torch on top of a 60cm stick lighting the site in the middle of a giant snowflake, which turned out to be the smallest Olympic cauldron in history.