Yoon Sang-hyun: "Opposition Party Conducted Tourism Diplomacy... To Lift 'Hanhanryeong', Should Have Met Chinese Leadership"

Amid the deterioration of Korea-China relations due to the Sing Hai-ming incident, seven lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea visited China and Tibet for a 3-night, 4-day trip and returned the day before. Yoon Sang-hyun, a member of the People Power Party and former chairman of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, criticized the visit as "tourism diplomacy."

On the 19th, Yoon said on SBS's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show,' "When they went, they mentioned issues such as the so-called pan-ho (game license) problem, group tourism issues, and business visa problems. If they truly intended to resolve these issues, even if they went to Tibet, they should have met with the central leadership, the Chinese leadership, or those with decision-making authority," he said.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He added, "Currently, there is a ban on Korean cultural content in China. Group tourism has not been fully reopened, and culturally, when our game companies enter the Chinese market, they need to obtain a kind of license called banhao (版號), which has not been issued since spring 2017." He emphasized, "They said they went to point out these issues, but if that was the case, they should have met with the appropriate Chinese leadership, not gone to Tibet."

Regarding the Democratic Party lawmakers’ visit to Tibet, criticism has also arisen citing 'human rights' issues. However, Min Byung-duk, who visited China, dismissed this on SBS Radio, saying, "That was 70 years ago." In response, Yoon said, "Forced labor in Tibet, the Xizang region, and Xinjiang is a major human rights issue. This was mentioned in the G7 joint statement announced in Hiroshima last May," adding, "It is not a matter of 70 years ago; human rights issues are still being raised today."

He continued, "Tibet is actually an autonomous region of China. Tibet was forcibly annexed around 1950, and since then, human rights issues and various autonomy and separatist problems have continued to arise. They said they went to the expo and attended events there, but from China’s perspective, they wanted to subtly showcase that they are managing not only the Han ethnic group but also 55 other minority groups well, including the Xizang Tibet region," he said.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.