"People Feel Uncontrollable Anger and Humiliation"
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Su-wan] The so-called 'China Gate' controversy, alleging that Chinese nationals and ethnic Chinese in Korea are systematically manipulating domestic public opinion, is spreading.
The main content of the suspicion is that China's internet public opinion manipulation, which has been controversial in the United States and Taiwan, is also taking place in South Korea.
The controversy began recently when a netizen who introduced themselves as an ethnic Chinese in Korea posted on an online community. The post stated, "Joseonjok are manipulating all public opinion in Korea," and added, "I wanted to keep it secret, but I feel sorry for Koreans who have to live their whole lives without knowing the truth, so I am revealing it."
Initially, this content spread mainly through conservative-leaning internet communities.
Some netizens cited the abnormal number of Chinese-language comments on domestic articles as 'circumstantial' evidence, claiming, "A Chinese public opinion manipulation group infiltrated Naver long ago."
A representative example is a Pyeongchang Olympics-related article from February 2018 titled 'Men's Short Track Im Hyo-jun, Seo Yi-ra, Hwang Dae-heon all pass 1000m preliminaries.'
This article reported that a Chinese athlete was disqualified for pushing a Korean athlete, and it received over 60,000 Chinese-language comments, with the top comment receiving nearly 29,000 recommendations.
The comments included Chinese-language insults and criticisms of Korea, such as "An unprecedented scandal (歷代級的黑幕)" and "This is Pyeongchang (這就是平昌)."
As this content spread across various online communities, a petition titled 'Thoroughly investigate China's organized public opinion manipulation and infringement on national sovereignty' was posted on the Blue House's public petition board, continuing the controversy.
Especially on the day before Samiljeol (March 1st), 'China Gate' ranked first in portal site search terms, and related search terms like 'Naneun Gaein-io' and 'Dongtaiwang' also ranked high, leading to a second wave of debate.
'Naneun Gaein-io' and 'Dongtaiwang' are phrases that emerged during the process of identifying Chinese users through 'bait links.'
To lure Chinese people known to be pro-Moon Jae-in, many posts appeared on social media saying, "This is a petition to prevent the impeachment of Moon Jae-in. Please all participate," linking to 'Dongtaiwang,' an anti-Chinese Communist Party site.
Some Chinese users, thinking it was the Blue House petition board, entered 'Dongtaiwang' and left comments saying "Naneun Gaein-io" on social media.
It was claimed that in China, simply accessing 'Dongtaiwang' is punishable, which explains such reactions.
There was also a post stating that when a netizen left the Dongtaiwang website address on the Twitter account 'Kim Gyeo-kul,' which has about 4,600 followers and has encouraged comment recommendations favorable to the current administration on portal sites, the account was immediately shut down.
On February 28th, a petition titled 'Thoroughly investigate China's organized public opinion manipulation and infringement on national sovereignty' was posted on the Blue House public petition board.
The petitioner stated, "As evidence of China-originated comment operations and infringement on national sovereignty is gradually revealed, the public is grinding their teeth in uncontrollable anger and humiliation."
They continued, "Especially, the giant Twitter user 'Kim Gyeo-kul,' who had thousands of followers and acted as the Red Guards of the current administration, was revealed to be a Joseonjok maliciously manipulating public opinion in Korea through this incident. After this was exposed, the Twitter account was deleted, and the person fled without any punishment."
They emphasized, "The China-originated traffic to the Blue House, which surged until the 25th (accounting for 33%, ranking second after South Korea among accessing countries), mysteriously dropped to 0.53% immediately after blocking Chinese users, as shown in the link below."
The petitioner also raised their voice, saying, "From the past mad cow disease and THAAD electromagnetic waves to the current Wuhan pneumonia, which has caused division inside and outside the country and enormous economic losses, China has been behind the social conflicts in South Korea. Even when those involved are revealed, they flee without any punishment as in the current situation, which is unacceptable in a country like South Korea."
Finally, they said, "I sincerely urge the Blue House to mobilize all the powers held by the president and the executive branch to identify and punish those involved and to fundamentally block related acts, so that South Korea's national sovereignty will never again be manipulated by the People's Republic of China."
The petition has more than 100 preliminary consents and is under review by administrators. However, if it does not meet the Blue House petition requirements, it may be made private or partially hidden.
Suspicions that China manipulates other countries' internet public opinion have also been raised in the United States.
In September last year, the Washington Post (WP) editorial stated, "China began internet public opinion manipulation much earlier than Russian trolls (Russia's internet public opinion manipulation organization)."
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