THAAD Article 1 : North Korean Nuclear Threat and THAAD
http://www.heraldinsight.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=360


THAAD Article 2 : North Korea’s Nuclear Ambition
http://www.heraldinsight.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=378

 


The decision to deploy THAAD in South Korea has drawn criticism domestically and internationally.

On a local level, THAAD has been criticized by the citizens of Seongju, where the defense system is to be stationed. Their vociferous objection is based on a belief that THAAD’s powerful radar emits microwaves that are a health hazard.

 
At a national level, many liberal politicians, led by the 2012 presidential candidate Moon Jae-in, oppose the deployment of THAAD. They believe that the government is acting in the interest of the United States jeopardizing South Korea’s relationship with China. They also believe that deploying THAAD is a provocation to North Korea. Instead, they support dialogue as a means of persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
 
More ominously, the decision drew an indignant reaction from China. While South Korea and the U.S. say that THAAD is required for defense against the North Korean missile threat, China claims that the true purpose of the system is to monitor China. China maintains that THAAD’s powerful AN/TPY-2 radar will be used to keep an eye on China’s military assets and movements near its borders with North Korea.
 
However, this is only a small part of the real picture. To China, the THAAD deployment is an extension of both the U.S.-ROK alliance and the threat against North Korea. In a bigger picture, it poses a continuing challenge against China’s desire to exert its influence in the world as a nascent superpower. For a deeper understanding of China’s stance on this issue, how China views itself in the modern world must be taken into consideration.
 
After Mao Zedong died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping came into power. Unlike Mao, he showed surprising ideological flexibility and brought in far-reaching market economy reforms to the Communist giant. Under Deng’s leadership, the Chinese economy took off and has been growing ever since, becoming the second-largest economy in the world by nominal GDP in 2014 according to the IMF. In the eyes of the Chinese and the world, China has begun to regain her former imperial glory.
 
With the rise of the economic power of China, the world is witnessing the resurgence of ‘Chinese Exceptionalism’ on the global stage. Historically, China has never considered itself just a nation, but a civilization according to historians like Fernand Braudel and Henry Kissinger. This self-perception was largely justified in history—China for over two millennia had been the richest, most powerful and most populous civilization until the ‘Century of Humiliation’ in the 19th Century. It came complete with the world’s most advanced bureaucracy known as the ‘Mandarin System’ and the heights of scientific and technological achievements unknown to the rest of the world until the Age of Reason and Industrial Revolution in Europe. On the other hand, China’s former imperial superpower status was largely confined to its borders. Its Sino-centric worldview expected the world to come to China to pay homage and learn from it, not the other way around. Thus, China never quite felt it necessary to conquer new places or, for that matter, develop a blue ocean navy. Now, however, China wants to reassert itself, as any rich and powerful nation would.
 
This newfound world power status for China in the 21st century came with an emerging vulnerability. Unlike in the past, not even China can function without being part of the world’s trade in modern times. In fact, China’s economic prosperity is tethered to international trade and it, in turn, depends on sea lanes. The sea lanes are the arteries that keep China wealthy. A nation that has gained affluence simply does not want to let go of it. It is then imperative for China to protect its sea lanes. Unfortunately for China, the single most important sea lane, which brings oil for China among other things, runs through the South China Sea. Again unfortunately for China, the South China Sea is part of the Pacific Ocean and the U.S. dominates the Pacific. China, then, has two choices — plays second fiddle to the U.S. in the Pacific, or challenge U.S. control of the South China Sea. As China’s recent claims to the Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands show, China appears to have chosen the latter option.
 
This confrontational stance by China against the U.S. is playing itself out on land as well. The Korean peninsula is a main theatre where this is taking place, along with Taiwan. The U.S. has been a staunch ally of South Korea for over half a century. While its military support was initially intended for the containment of communism, it now serves as a method for protecting America’s unparalleled prestige on the Asian side of the Pacific, according to geopolitical analysts like Martin Jacques and George Friedman. This geopolitical design necessarily entails “containment” of China. However, now that China is emerging as a regional superpower, it feels it has the resources to challenge the U.S. hegemony in the region. China feels that it cannot afford to be pushed around if it wants to preserve the prestige it has acquired and protect its future prosperity.
 
However, as China historically never had a navy until the late 20th Century, it is unrealistic to think that China could take on the U.S.’s control over the Pacific region for a foreseeable future. Nevertheless, China feels compelled to engage in a dangerous brinksmanship in the South China Sea and the East China Sea against the U.S. China is banking on the doctrine of “Anti Access / Area Denial” to keep any naval clash too costly even for the U.S., rather than a full naval confrontation with the U.S. Navy. In this environment, China certainly does not want to admit or exacerbate its relative military weakness vis-a-vis the U.S. on land as well. It is against this backdrop that China considers the THAAD deployment in Korea a veiled challenge. China has no choice but to react strongly against it.
 
At a regional level, it is in the vested interest of China to keep North Korea as a “buffer zone.” However frustrated and irritated China may be about North Korea, North Korea keeps the unbridled democracy and market economy of the U.S. and South Korea away from its own borders. Any threat to North Korea, therefore, is a vicarious threat to China itself, THAAD included. 
 
In the next and final installment of articles on THAAD, South Korea’s calculations and options in the face of local, domestic and international objections to THAAD deployment will be examined.
 









Andrew Chung
11th grade
Seoul Foreign School
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