On Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, only to lift it a few hours later. The unprecedented move has drawn significant international attention.
Reuters reported that the declaration “sent shockwaves through South Korea, a country long considered a stable democracy since the 1980s.” Meanwhile, Japan’s Kyodo News noted, “With Yoon’s approval ratings hovering around 20% midway through his term, this move appears to be an attempt to address a deepening political crisis.”
In China, a country with a history of authoritarian rule, there was notable discomfort about the martial law situation in South Korea. On Wednesday, Chinese media closely followed the developments, offering real-time coverage and analysis of Yoon’s decision. The news quickly became a top search topic on Baidu, China’s largest search engine, drawing significant attention from Chinese internet users.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency published a detailed account titled “Seoul’s Winter: Yoon Suk Yeol’s 6-Hour Martial Law Farce“. The article provided an hour-by-hour breakdown of the declaration and its rapid reversal. The article humorously compared the situation to a “live-action version of the film ‘12.12: The Day'” while also noting the worsening political polarization in South Korea in recent years.
Xinhua’s affiliated social media account, Niutanqin, offered its own commentary, calling the martial law declaration “essentially a coup” and expressing shock that “the president himself initiated such an act.” The account further mocked the situation, saying, “Don’t think that declaring yourself an enemy of the world for the woman you love is something you only see in movies or novels.” It suggested that First Lady Kim Keon Hee’s involvement played a central role in Yoon’s decision, claiming that the president may have been rushing to act ahead of a crucial vote on a special prosecutor law related to Kim scheduled for the following week.
Other media outlets in the Chinese-speaking world continued to follow the developments of martial law closely. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post opined that Yoon’s actions had “effectively ended his political life.” In Taiwan, United Daily News referred to the incident as the re-emergence of Seoul’s Spring after 44 years, describing it as “the worst night, a sad and shocking 9 hours.”
In the aftermath, the Chinese embassy in Seoul issued a consular notice just an hour and a half after the martial law declaration, advising Chinese citizens in South Korea to “avoid unnecessary outings and exercise caution when expressing political views.”
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