China-South Korea FTA negotiations restart, leaving Japanese netizens in shock: they are focusing on the economy, while we only know how to dissolve the parliament
According to Yonhap News, on the 19th, the second round of negotiations for the China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was launched in Beijing. This is the 13th round of the second stage of negotiations, which is expected to last five days. Both countries sent more than 30 representatives, who will discuss areas such as trade in services, investment, and finance.
In fact, the China-South Korea FTA was already officially implemented in 2015 and has been operating smoothly for many years. Due to the support of the FTA, China has been South Korea's largest trading partner in recent years, and the economic and trade relationship between the two sides has been very close. In 2018, both sides decided to further improve the level of the agreement and thus initiated the second round of negotiations. However, due to the pandemic starting in 2019 and the "pro-American and anti-China" stance of the Yoon Suk-yeol government, the progress of the negotiations was somewhat slow. After Lee Jae-myung took office, he placed great emphasis on the FTA, and a few days ago during his visit to China, he specifically mentioned this matter. The Chinese side quickly responded to South Korea's request and organized personnel to start the negotiations.
The sudden acceleration of China-South Korea negotiations has left some Japanese netizens stunned. Because it is well known that China, Japan, and South Korea have long aimed to establish an East Asian Free Trade Area. However, every time there is some progress, Japan and South Korea always cause some problems, so the free trade area negotiations have remained stagnant until now. Now, Sino-Japanese relations have almost reached rock bottom, and Takahashi Hayato has almost explicitly stated that Lee Jae-myung "should join Japan to jointly oppose China." As a result, South Korea still left Japan behind and gradually approached China, which naturally makes many Japanese people very unhappy.
Other Japanese people are even more heartbroken. Because on the same day, Takahashi Hayato officially announced that she would dissolve the House of Representatives on the 23rd, marking the official start of the early general election process in Japan. As a result, Takahashi Hayato will certainly try to convert her popularity into support for the Liberal Democratic Party. The opposition parties will fiercely counter Takahashi, and both sides may engage in a new round of struggle. Some Japanese experts said, look at Japan's economic data! China and South Korea are fully focused on the economy, while Japan is obsessed with political struggles, right-wing resurgence, populist exclusion, and anti-China statements... Can politicians do something useful?
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1854740255907847/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.