The Rojava Revolution and the leadership of women

 Written by: YPG (Women's Defence Forces) on 20 July 2023

The role of women is central to the successes of revolutionary movements in the Philippines and in India. Women have also played major roles in recent struggles in Iran and Afghanistan. The following statement was recently released by the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), an armed force of Kurdish and other peoples fighting for liberation from ISIS, the Assad regime, and the Turkish invaders in the northern and eastern sectors of Syria. 

On July 19th 2012, the population of Kobane expelled the Syrian army after months of uprisings against the Ba’ath Regime. Yesterday, the revolutionary movement celebrated the 11th anniversary of the Rojava Revolution.

 

“The Rojava Revolution achieved its true meaning with the YPJ”

• Update on

• July 19, 2023

 

The revolution in North and East Syria has created a new life under the leadership of women. While the region was in the middle of a severe crisis caused by the Baath regime as well as the policies of the hegemonic powers, the opportunity to determine our own destiny arose. On this basis, we decided to establish a system in which society organizes itself within the framework of democratic confederalism. In the past years, we defended our lands from severe attacks and fought relentlessly against the policies of genocide. We liberated the territories occupied by ISIS without relying on other forces, motivated by our strong belief in a free and equal life.

 

Many revolutions have failed because the interests of the people could not be defended, the revolution here however is based on the people’s interests- ecology, democracy and women’s liberation. This is why it has achieved a truly revolutionary change within society.

 

In line with these principles, the YPJ took the responsibility for creating a free future and became a leading force. The participation of women in the YXK/YPG Units from the very beginning played a decisive role in the organization of women and peoples. The women joining the armed self-defense units ensured that the interests of the people are represented properly and influenced the forces by implementing new styles and methods of our struggle. By being an integral part of the self-defense forces, the YPJ has become a role model far beyond the Middle East.

 

With the revolution in North and East Syria, women realized the meaning of their existence that had been taken away violently by the dominant male system for thousands of years. Women carried out a relentless struggle against all kinds of invasions and attacks using their legitimate right of self-defense. Within the struggle women are part of organizing the people, educating themselves and others and participating in the armed defense. The fighters of the YPJ defend the identities, languages, cultures and free will of the peoples. For this reason, the Rojava Revolution achieved its true meaning with the YPJ.

 

The YPJ will continue its relentless struggle as a vanguard force against all policies of occupation and annihilation. We look proudly at 11 years of great struggle, resistance, heroism and the spirit of self-sacrificing. Always side by side with the people of this land. It was the unity of the peoples that made this revolution happen. So, the spirit of unity of the peoples will play a decisive role in the continuation and permanence of the women’s revolution in North and East Syria.

 

Many of our valuable fighters and commanders gave their lives for the Rojava Revolution. We, the YPJ, make a promise to continue their struggle and ensure the continuation of the revolution.

 

YPJ General Command

18.07.2023

..........................

For further information, visit the YPJ website..

Report on the Australian political situation to the ICOR Asia Conference 22-23 July 2023

Written by: Nick G. on 20 July 2023

The following country report has been sent to the Asia Conference meeting of parties and organizations affiliated to ICOR, the International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organizations.

Our Party is affiliated to ICOR through the Asian Continental grouping, along with parties and organizations from India, Sri Lanka, Bangla Desh, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iran and Nepal.

The ICOR Asia Conference is being held in India on 22-23 July.

The report follows:

First Peoples

We open this report by commenting on the circumstances of the First Peoples of this continent and its islands. The First Peoples claim to have been here “since time immemorial” which, in calendar years, is around 60,000 years of occupation and ownership. The invasion of their lands by British unsettlers, whose history books for years spoke of “peaceful settlement”, was everywhere accomplished by force and violence or the threat of force and violence. Colonial racism justified attempted genocide, and violent occupation and exploitation of the First People’s lands and country. Indeed, one authoritative “history” published as late as 1890, equated the First Peoples with the “beasts of the field” who “sowed not, nor did they reap”, and whose nakedness indicated that they “pre-dated…even Adamic times”. That is, they were not created by the Christian God in his image, and should not therefore be treated as humans, but rather as a lower race of savages destined to be exterminated off the face of this Earth. Their lands were not regarded as populated in the European sense of having privately owned territories, so no attempt was made to “justify” colonial occupation by way of treaties.

The First Peoples resisted and survived and are determined to take back what is theirs. Never having ceded the rights to their lands by way of treaties with the unsettlers, they have since the 1970s, won through their own efforts, recognition in colonial law of land rights and, after the 1992 Mabo Decision, of their continuing occupation and ownership of traditional lands.

However, their battles are far from over. First Peoples are still subjected to daily racism and systemic disadvantage which results in huge gaps between their health, housing, education and employment levels and those of non-Indigenous Australians. They are the most incarcerated people on Earth. First Peoples continue to be displaced from their lands by the multinational mining corporations.

This year there will be a nation-wide referendum to alter the Australian Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Constitution and create a permanent representative  Voice for First Peoples to the Australian Parliament.  Although this demand has been driven by conservatives among the First Peoples and is rejected by more militant First Peoples as an attempt to divert their struggles into the quicksand of parliamentary reform through a powerless advisory-only mechanism, it has prompted a racist Vote No campaign led by the conservative Liberal and National Parties. Whatever the outcome of the referendum, the momentum behind First Peoples’ demands for self-determination will continue and grow.

Australian workers

In the Asian region, the Australian working class has had the benefit of living in an advanced industrial nation of imperialist-dominated capitalism. The Australian working class creates enormous surplus value from the exploitation of its labour power and natural resources on the stolen lands of the First Nations people, appropriated by mining monopoly corporations.  Since the 1980s,  imperialist globalization has destroyed much of the local value-added manufacturing industrial base.  No longer does Australia have car manufacturing and tool making industries, shipbuilding, clothing and footwear, pharmaceuticals, steel production.  We are often described as a quarry for multinational mining corporations (minerals and gas) exporting natural resources and profits.

Although the Australian working class’s living standards are relatively high, so is the cost of living and many are threatened by insecurity through a combination of a decade-long inability to improve wages, through ongoing threats of unemployment or precarious employment, huge rises in rents and purchase prices for housing, rising medical costs and education expenses. As a result, more and more people are homeless, forced to seek accommodation with friends and family, and failing that, sleeping rough in the streets, or living in the family car. These conditions are exacerbated by some of the most restrictive and punitive industrial laws in the advanced capitalist world: strikes are illegal except when granted by permission of the authorities during enterprise agreement negotiations, which means that employers are given plenty of warning and preparation time, and the strikes are of limited duration and effectiveness.  Very little has changed with the election of the social-democratic Australian Labor government, and with Labor governments in 7 of the 8 state and territory jurisdictions. Workers are learning that they must fight for their own independent working class agenda, and not rely on parliament or the authorities.

The US-Australia Stranglehold

The major parliamentary parties are dyed-in-the- wool supporters of US imperialism. Australia is part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, is part of the Quad (with India, Japan and the US) and of AUKUS (with the US and UK). Its history post-WW2 is one of willing subservience to the US imperialist global order, and it has joined imperialist wars in Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. At the present time, attempts are made to prepare the Australian people psychologically and politically for a US-led war with its main rival, Chinese social-imperialism. However, there is growing momentum behind opposition to AUKUS and the decision to equip the Australian Navy with US and British nuclear-powered submarines. The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) and the Australian Anti-AUKUS Coalition (AAAC) are the driving forces behind this public grass roots campaign which has been supported by a growing number of unions and by many rank-and-file members of the Labor Party.

There is evidence of small divisions within sections of Australia’s ruling class some of whom are aligning themselves closer to China.

Successive Australian governments, both Liberal and Labor, slavishly uphold and promote U.S. global imperialist policies, turning Australia into a major U.S. military base, a launching pad for U.S war with China.  At the same time as ICOR Asia Conference is taking place major military exercises on land, air and sea are being held in North Queensland (North Australia).  Talisman Sabre is the largest US-Australia military training exercises in the region, held biannually in Australia.   This year more than 30,000 military personnel from 13 countries are taking part in these war preparations, most from the U.S.     Nuclear weapons carrying US B51 and B 52 bombers, US warships and US and UK nuclear powered submarines will be regularly based in Australia.

However, recent polls show more than 50% of Australia’s people want Australia to be neutral if war breaks out between US and China.   Support for neutrality is strongest amongst women and young people.

Opposition to Australia’s involvement in U.S. wars and calls for sovereignty and independence are growing.

A movement for peace and nuclear free Australia is being re-built.

Increasing Repression

Australia does not have a Bill of Rights, and the Australian people’s rights and liberties are subject to continual attack by the ruling class. In addition to the repressive industrial laws, anti-terrorism provided the bourgeoisie with the pretext for increased surveillance, for new crimes and for increased penalties for old ones. Most states have massively increased fines and created or strengthened provisions to jail protesters who cause obstruction in a public place. The newly-elected Labor government dropped charges against a high-profile defendant involved in the exposure of Australia’s bugging of East Timorese negotiators on behalf of Woodside, an oil giant, after a widespread mass campaign in his favour. However, they proceed with court action against other whistleblowers such as David McBride, a former British Army Major and Australian Army lawyer who exposed Australian war crimes in Afghanistan leading to a civil court ruling that one Victoria Cross winner was a “bully, a liar and a war criminal” responsible for the murder of Afghan civilians. The government has proven powerless to date to secure the freedom from extradition to the US of Australian journalist Julian Assange, who shattered the imperialists’ monopoly on information with the publication of Wikileaks, and is preparing to extradite to the vindictive and criminal US authorities yet another Australian citizen, Daniel Duggan, whose “crime” was to have trained pilots in China. At the time of writing, he has been held in solitary confinement in an Australian maximum security prison for 260 days whilst his extradition is arranged. 

80% of the Australian people want the government to stand up to the U.S. to stop the extradition of Julian Assange and bring him home to Australia.
Revolutionary Movement

Comrades, although we are far from a revolutionary situation in our country, a revolutionary movement exists and grows. Feeding into it are related movements against fossil fuel corporations and for action to stop global warming, and the #metoo women’s movement which rallied around a young Tasmanian woman who had been groomed and repeatedly sexually abused by a teacher, and around a political staffer who was alleged to have been raped in a Ministerial office at Parliament House by another staffer. Both of these women’s stories added to the campaign to stop domestic violence and discrimination and abuse of women in the workplace. On average, working women receive $255 less than men per week in wages. Young people are prominent within the climate and women’s movements.

We continue to analyse the political situation in our region where the small nations of the Pacific are asserting their independence and demanding effective action on climate change, and where people across the Indo-Pacific are struggling to prevent war between the US and Chinese imperialists. Our country is a second world, or sub-imperial power, playing a disgraceful role in aligning with the US imperialists who have the Australian bourgeoisie thoroughly enmeshed in a net of economical, political, cultural, diplomatic and military control. We the people are fighting for genuine anti-imperialist independence and for socialism.
We look forward to contributing, in a spirit of proletarian internationalism, to the advance of the peoples’ movements in our region.

Warm greetings,

Nick G.
Chairperson, CPA (M-L) 

Papua New Guinea and the US Indo-Pacific Strategy

 

(Above: Signing the US-PNG Defence agreement     Photo source: ABC)

Written by: (Contributed) on 19 July 2023

A major diplomatic statement from a well-placed source in Canberra about planned sensitive military facilities in PNG has shown how the South Pacific has become a front-line for Australian military and security with the wider region. Reference to the US and their Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) partners was also contained in the statement showing how it has become the core of US regional foreign policy.

In early July, the Strategic Analysis Australia in conjunction with the National Security College, issued a major statement about US regional foreign policy in general, with specific reference to PNG. (1) In recent times, due to the changing balance of forces with the rise of China, countries such as PNG have become more sensitive to military planners in Canberra and the Pentagon.

The timing of the statement coincided with similar moves made between Canberra and Indonesia with a high-level contact established with President Joko Widodo visiting Australia in early July. It was noted, 'in the diplomatic sphere, direct engagement is an opportunity to build on a key strategic partnership as the Indo-Pacific becomes increasingly fraught'. (2)

Reference in the PNG report, likewise, was made to the Milne Bay area being assessed for military facilities; the sheltered deep-water harbour surrounded by heavily wooded terrain has made the area ideal for covert US-led regional operations. Previous attention given to the Lombrum facilities on Manus Island have proved highly controversial with complaints from local land-owners. Milne Bay also faces Fiji, another Pacific country with a strategically-placed deep-water harbour, used by submarines for regional operations.

There is also another important reason why Milne Bay has been chosen over Manus Island for the defence and security of 'US interests'. Milne Bay faces a multitude of small island chains, including the Calvados Chain reaching to Rossel and Adele Islands. They are situated on a straight line from the Kuril Islands in the northern hemisphere through Australian military bases in Queensland, at 153 degrees east and face the western Pacific between 10 and 30 degrees south and the Solomon and Coral Seas. (3)

The Kuril Islands mark the beginning of Pentagon regional military planning with Island Chain Theory, a re-used relic of the previous Cold War now upgraded for containing and encircling perceived Chinese interests. Island chains are used for regional demarcation to restrict easy access and egress into the wider Oceania.

Of the nine military bases in Queensland, Lavarack in Townsville remains the most important, hosting the Third Brigade of the Combat Signals Regiment. It is also not surprising to find the arc from Lavarack to Milne Bay also swings through Darwin, used by the US for troop rotations into the wider Indo-Pacific. (4)

References in the diplomatic statement to the 'US agreeing to share satellite data with PNG', is also evidence of the strategic significance of Milne Bay. (5) While the US is able to spy on the entire world with their surveillance and monitoring systems, they require local knowledge to identify areas of interest from agents and 'ground human'. Local people in the Milne Bay area, for example, would have experience of islands and population movements between the small land-masses which have become more sensitive in recent times.

It is also significant to note references in the diplomatic statement to other US allies included in their Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS), as lower-level partners: Taiwan, South Korea, India, and others. (6) The Japan-South Korea General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) is regarded by the US as 'essential as a military intelligence sharing framework for trilateral missile defence as a key axis in the IPS targeting China', and has four key points: the US, Australia, India and Japan, with the enclosed area including strategic assets for 'US interests', particularly in Asia. (7)

Recent regional assessments have revealed how the US has been pressurising Australia to upgrade its influences in South-east Asia to counter China's large regional aid program. (8) A total of $55.7 million was allocated in the recent federal budget to 'deepen ties with South-east Asia'. (9) At present Australia's two-way trade with the area of the Indo-Pacific only amounts to fourteen per cent of its total trade. (10) China, by contrast, has increased its regional diplomacy during the last decade by using programs based on mutual benefits with a $38 billion program launched in 2015 and completed in 2021. (11) 

When PNG signed a Defence Co-operation Agreement with the US in May, to enable the Pentagon to deploy assets to selected PNG bases, it was noted that 'PNG will become a key location to build some real influence in Melanesia', and that they were placing themselves in the front-line of US-led regional hostilities. (12)

Australia should really consider an independent foreign policy before it is too late to prevent the drift into real-war scenarios, most likely through rapid escalation of hostilities elsewhere in the region.

It is not idle speculation: a recent study conducted by the University of Technology, Sydney, and their Australia-China Relations Institute, for example, found most Australians thought military conflict with China a distinct possibility within the next three years, and fewer than half thought the AUKUS military agreement will make Australia a safer place. (13)

1.     America walks the walk in battle for Pacific minds, Australian, 10 July 2023.    
2.     Canberra-Jakarta union to bolster growth, security, Australian, 3 July 2023.
3.     See: Peters Projection, Map of the World, Actual Size.
4.     Ibid.
5.     Australian, op.cit., 10 July 2023.
6.     The reasons behind Washington's push for GSOMIA., Hankyoreh, 12 November 2019.
7.     Ibid.
8.     China holds regional sway with $38 bn aid, Australian, 5 June 2023.
9.     Risks and rewards in Asia, Australian, 6 July 2023.
10.   Ibid.
11.   Australian, op.cit., 5 June 2023.
12.   Australian, op.cit., 10 July 2023.
13.   War with China on the cards, says poll, Australian, 11 July 2023.

Kimba nuclear dump decision – tears of joy.

 Written by: Nick G. on 18 July 2023

There were tears of joy outside the Federal Court in Adelaide this morning when Barngarla First Peoples and their supporters celebrated the quashing of the federal government’s decision to construct a nuclear waste dump at Napandee, near Kimba on Eyre Peninsula.

Earlier, the mood of the standing-room room only courtroom of Justice Natalie Charlesworth was solemn as she dismissed three of four grounds of the Barngarla’s case. However, the substantive fourth ground was upheld, with Justice Charlesworth finding that then federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt had shown “apprehended bias” in deciding in favour of the Kimba site, and therefore set his decision aside.

It is rare for a court to make a ruling of apprehended bias against a Minister, although the Federal Court last March made such a ruling against former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, quashing his decision to refuse to extend Asset Energy’s petroleum exploration permit, as his decision could be apprehended to have been predetermination following his overt public stance against the project.

At common law and under the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977, the test for the Bias Rule extends beyond whether there is actual bias to whether there is an appearance of bias. An appearance or apprehension of bias may occur if, in the circumstances, a fair-minded lay observer may reasonably apprehend that the decision maker may not bring an impartial mind to their decision.

Leaving aside the legal niceties of the courtroom, it was the strength and courage of the Barngarla community that helped decide the issue. Uncle Harry Dare, a Barngarla elder told me as we waited for the court to open that regardless of which way the decision went, the Barngarla would continue their fight against the dump. They had strong allies among the farmers of Kimba who had their own organisation, No Radioactive Waste on Agricultural Land in Kimba or SA. However, they did not have the financial resources to fund their own court case against the decision, President Peter Woolford declaring that the system was unfair to those without such resources.

In a statement following the court decision, Woolford said that he was “extremely happy and relieved” that the court had decided in the Barngarla’s favour.

“Having also experienced the injustices and the manipulations that have occurred over the entire 8 year process, we fully understand the frustration and stress that the government’s tactics have caused. We are so pleased that the voices of the traditional owners have been heard and listened to, and that their unwavering opposition to this facility has finally been recognised.”

“What does this say about the Voice?”

Both Liberal and Labor federal governments have thrown huge amounts of taxpayer moneys to get the dump approved and to defend their process against the Barngarla’s pursuit of a court review of the process. Facilities around Kimba have benefitted from millions given to the town to entice its ratepayers to vote for the dump, with the promise of a community development package of up to $31 million once the dump was operational. 

They also spent more than $10 million on their legal costs against the Barngarla, who over the same period had only spent $124,000 on their legal costs.

Barngarla Development Aboriginal Corporation chairperson Jason Bilney described the legal battle as a “David and Goliath” battle. He said that it was a very proud and emotional day.

He also asked what the long drawn-out case said about the Voice. The Barngarla had commissioned their own vote on the dump proposal and it had been unanimously opposed by the 83 respondents, yet the incoming Labor government continued to run with the dump, and their Resource Minister Madeleine King had shown her support for the dump on a visit to Kimba and by authorising work at the site despite the Federal Court case being still underway. The previous government and the current one had both ignored the Barngarla voice. He said today’s victory was for truth-telling. 

The federal government now has two choices.  It can appeal today’s decision, wasting more money, further disrespecting the Barngarla and throwing into even more doubt the sincerity of their promise to listen to the Voice of First Peoples. Or it can initiate a new search for a stable, deep underground repository for nuclear waste. The waste will not only be low level and intermediate level waste but must now, by virtue of the AUKUS arrangement, include high level waste from decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines. The search for a new site must work with, and not against, the communities concerned. Such a process of site identification must avoid what Peter Woolford said was the “absolute disgrace” of the Kimba process. 

Corporatisation of Universities Exposed

 Written by: Ned K. on 17 July 2023

A Briefing Paper by Eliza Littleton for the Australia Institute this month exposes in considerable detail how Universities have become corporations competing for the overseas student dollar. 

The Report finds that since 1995 federal government funding for universities has declined from 0.9% of GDP to 0.6% of GDP in 2021. This may not seem a lot but in dollar terms the Report says this equates to a $6.5 billion reduction in federal government funding in 2021.

The Report also reveals that since 1995 private sources of revenue of universities have more than doubled from 21.7% to an all-time high of 48% in 2019.

 

The Report also notes that the re-introduction of university fees and the Dawkins "reforms" of the late 1980s under a federal ALP Government sent universities down the corporate road. This accelerated the number of overseas students as a percentage of total enrolments.

 

Once the corporate road was taken, universities outsourced support services and made casual employment and fixed term contracts the norm, forcing thousands of university workers into the ranks of insecure employment experienced by thousands of workers in all sectors of the capitalist economy in Australia.

 

The Report also notes that the dominant business sectors of the economy such as defense, space technology and information technology have an increasing influence in the disciplines within universities. Social sciences and humanities take a back seat. Even in medicine, students are encouraged to specialize at university as that is where the big bucks are made after graduation.  This has led to a shortage of doctors who serve the people at what most people know as the "family doctor" or "GP".

 

The profit motive has hit not only academic staff hard, but support services as well, with year after year of outsourcing of maintenance services, security, catering and cleaning. 

 

The ideology of capitalism has always been a feature of universities even before the corporatisation of their operations over the last 30 years. The predominance of capitalist ideology within the operations of universities has intensified in the 21st Century with the majority of university Boards of Directors having a corporate background.

 

The Report from the Australia Institute concludes with a ray of hope from its findings. The Report includes results of surveys of Australian people about the state of university education and found that the majority of people are concerned that universities are prioritising profits at the expense of education and declining access to universities for young people in Australia.

 

They expect better from a federal Labor Government. The ball is in the Labor Government's court. So far, the signs are not good with the SA Labor Government throwing money at a merger between the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia to create an "internationally competitive" university! Following this recent announcement, the SA Premier made a trip to China in an effort to increase overseas Chinese student numbers. 

 

Both universities also have specialist “defence” sectors, with US armaments manufacturer Lockheed Martin a major partner of both.  BAE and Swedish defence contractor SAAB are partners of the Uni of SA.

 

This is not a good indicator that the federal Labor Government will reverse the corporatisation trend of universities unless a people's movement mobilises to win education to serve the people not corporate profits.

AUKUS and the US Stranglehold on Australia

Underpinning the AUKUS arrangements, set in motion by the US a decade ago, is the inevitability of war with China.

But just what is the US dragging us into, and what would be the consequences for Australia of war with China? 

Watch our latest video/podcast:  

AUKUS and the US Stranglehold on Australia - YouTube

The Republic of Korea: Back in the US Fold

 

Written by: (Contributed) on 3 July 2023

The decision by the South Korean (ROK) government to activate a sensitive US-THAAD system has placed the presidential administration of Yoon Suk-yeol closer to the Pentagon; the ROK is now a major player in the US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy.

The previous presidential administration of Moon Jae-in, however, was more reluctant to actively side with the US, to prevent a confrontational diplomatic position with China.

The ROK, subsequently, has become increasingly divided, between those who want a more conciliatory diplomatic position toward the northern DPRK and China, and those who support the present US-led Cold War on the Korean peninsula.

The announcement from the Blue House in Seoul that the US THAAD missile defence system had been given the all-clear for activation next year has raised diplomatic tensions on the Korean peninsula. It had been initially put into position in May, 2017, shortly before Moon Jae-in took the presidency, although never activated due to health and safety and environmental considerations held by local people. The radar system had sufficient range to reach into the northern DPRK together with China and Russia. (1)

China, specifically, had raised criticism that the radar of the THAAD system could be used for surveillance of China. (2)

The THAAD system is a component part of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS), based on the US-Japan diplomatic alliance being upgraded to a global alliance. The ROK, which hosts 28,500 US military personnel as part of their Defence of Japan doctrine for rapid deployment in time of war, had been subsequently downgraded to the diplomatic position of a lower-level partner alongside Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and others. (3) The ROK was also initially reluctant to provide the US with unconditional guarantees about their participation in the IPS, and the Moon Jae-in administration had sought clarification in writing.

The activation of the US-THAAD system has also formed part of a region-wide missile-defence network, with Australia and Japan as regional hubs for 'US interests'. The foundations of the network were being laid over a decade ago, with a primary responsibility for intelligence-gathering and surveillance. (4)

Further concerns raised by the Moon Jae-in presidential administration included fears of economic retaliation by China, which still remains the ROK's biggest trading partner. It was noted during the period that, 'anti-THAAD sentiment by Chinese consumers affected everything from South-Korean-owned retailers and car-makers to K-pop concerts. Chinese tourism to South Korea plummeted'. (5) The fact that the ROK is reliant upon China for semi-conductors, batteries and rare earths, has meant the Blue House has historically taken a measured stance toward Beijing, as a matter of political expediency. (6)

The Yoon Suk-yeol presidential administration, nevertheless, has proved to be openly pro-US, without acknowledging the likely consequences. While it has been noted that Yoon Suk-yeol 'centred his foreign policy around tighter collaboration with the US and envisioned a relationship with China based on mutual respect', the ROK has become increasingly divided since he took office in March last year. The Yoon Suk-yeol administration has become very unpopular: many ROK people want a more conciliatory diplomatic position toward the DPRK, where they have family members.

It is also important to note a major diplomatic statement about the practicalities of ROK diplomatic relations with China, from Moon Jae-in special advisor, Moon Chung-in. It officially noted that while, 'South Korea is an American ally, and we maintain a strategic co-operative partnership with China … alliance is more important strategic partner … but … we are structurally dependent on China'. (7) The Yoon Suk-yeon presidential administration, however, appear to have rejected the assessment, and all which that entails.

  

1.     Missile defence gets the all clear, Australian, 23 June 2023.  
2.     South Korea, China clash over US missile shield, Reuters, 12 August 2022.
3.     The reasons behind Washington's push for GSOMIA., Hankyoreh, 12 November 2019.
4.     See: US seeks new Asia defences, The Wall Street Journal, 24-26 August 2012.
5.     Australian, op.cit., 23 June 2023.
6.     South Korea and the THAAD dilemma, DEFENCE.info., 6 July 2022.
7.     Seoul's balancing act between Beijing and Washington set to remain, The Global Times, 27 May 2021.