Sino-NK

An Easter Tour in Kilju includes Phoenix Magazine Staff, April 8, 2012 Photo by David Guttenfelder, courtesy New York Times

The Cruelest Month: Chinese Media Commentary on the Missile Launch Preparations

by Adam Cathcart

The New York Times, in a fascinating look at the outlook for another nuclear test in the DPRK, would have us believe that Xinhua was mainly obfuscating about the pending launch, but the truth is somewhat more complicated.  The following Chinese media threads on the issue are of interest:

Huanqiu Shibao reported on the 30 or so foreign reporters at the launch site, including a Xinhua reporter (or possibly several) and a representative of the mainland-affiliated Phoenix media group which was the main promoter of news about North Korean refugee issue in March.

North Korean 50-cent Party members have  made a reappareance, festooning the comments page on the above post with praise of Kim Jong Un’s military-political acumen and bragging about hitting an American aircraft carrier.

One of the interesting things about reading Huanqiu Shibao online as well as in paper is that one can see which stories get recycled and when.  The old op-eds somewhat critical of North Korea made a reappearance today on the paper’s homepage, namely the March 30 classic “The Political Situation on the Peninsula is Again Making Everyone Nervous” and the equal-opportunity critique about how pushing North Korea is hard, because pushing the other countries with interests in Northeast Asia is also hard.

An op-ed by a new voice in China’s Southwest describes the outlook at the UN on account of the launch and recaps US-DPRK tensions since the Korean War.

In English, the Global Times has its say on the matter, only somewhat combatively, while China Daily lays out the Foreign Ministry perspective and reminds us that even in a nation that loves fireworks and the grandiose gesture, the most effective theatrical acts can done on the smallest stages.

And meanwhile, for an update on court politics in Beijing — and as a merciful break from both the Xinhua cloud and the looming orbit — JustRecently’s essay “Cultural Revolutions Great and Small” is highly recommended.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (center), Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba (right) and ROK Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan post for a photo prior to meeting in Ningbo, Zhejiang, PRC. Photo courtesy Xinhua.