Opinion     

THAAD deployment puts Asia-Pacific in peril

China.org.cn, August 4, 2016

• THAAD system. [File photo]

  There's a Chinese proverb that goes, "Xiang Zhuang performed the sword dance as a cover for his attempt on Liu Bang's life." The meaning is that people sometimes speak and act with a hidden motive. The recent decision made by the U.S. and South Korea to deploy the THAAD system is a clear reflection of this Chinese saying.

  On the surface, the deployment is meant to deter a nuclear threat from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). However, with an interception capacity at altitudes well above the earth's atmosphere, using THAAD as deterrence to the DPRK's short-range missiles is like "killing a mosquito with anti-aircraft artillery." America's hidden intention is to monitor and deter countries like China and Russia.

  For the U.S., the THAAD deployment is an essential part of its "rebalancing" policy in the Asia-Pacific, which serves to consolidate its military supremacy in the region, and even in the world as a whole. But for South Korea, the move is a huge mistake and will place the country in an even more perilous situation.

  Since Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Park Geun-hye took office, Sino-Korean exchanges at the senior level have become more frequent, leading to rapid improvement in their economic and trade relations.

  In 2015, South Korea became China's second largest trading partner, surpassing Japan and standing only behind the U.S. According to a financial news report from China Central Television (CCTV), up to 6.11 million Chinese people traveled to South Korea in 2015, accounting for over 40 percent of the country's overall inbound travelers while spending an average of 14,000 yuan (US$ 2111.96) per person during their stay.

  But the deployment of the THAAD system is bound to take a toll on these breakthroughs and impair future economic and trade cooperation as well as tourism.

  It will also be seen as a huge "provocation" toward the DPRK and could possibly send the Korean Peninsula into a vicious spiral of arms race.

  Many sides want to see the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and are trying to keep negotiations underway despite they are faced with many difficulties. The deployment of the THAAD system, however, will render all past efforts pointless and greatly lower the possibility of solving the problem through a peaceful solution.

  In the wake of the THAAD announcement in July, the DPRK fired multiple ballistic missiles as a show of force and warned that it would retaliate against the new system with a "physical response.”

  The THAAD system is nothing less than a "powder keg"in South Korea's backyard. If the imaginary war does come true, South Korea is bound to become a battlefield. Its own people will suffer the most, transforming their "new era of hope and happiness"into "an era of misery.”

  The U.S., on the other hand, has more choices. It can either actively engage in the war or stand aside watching, and more likely, it could walk away, just as it did during the Vietnam War, leaving deaths, injuries and debris to the Korean Peninsula.

  Some insightful people in South Korea have already pointed out the mistakes of the irrational deployment. Sang-Man Lee, a professor at Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, said that deploying the THAAD system is a non-strategic decision that mainly serves U.S. interests while impairing a peaceful unification on the Korean Peninsula and putting people's safety at risk.

  On July 21, over 2,000 Koreans gathered at a square outside the main train station in Seoul for a rally to protest the deployment.

  Let's hope the South Korean administration will think twice and thrice for the well-being of the Korean Peninsula, of Asia, and most importantly, of its own people.

  Wang Xiaohui is editor-in-chief of China.org.cn.

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