Anti-Chinese sentiment in Korea
Korea has a long history of both resistance against and subordination to Imperial China. Until the onset of Western imperialism in the 19th century, Korea had been part of the sinocentric East Asian regional order. History. In 1931, while Korea was dominated by Imperial Japan, there was a dispute between Chinese and Korean farmers in Wanpaoshan, Manchuria. It was highly sensationalized in the Japanese and Korean press, and used as propaganda to increase anti-Chinese sentiment. It caused a series of anti-Chinese riots throughout Korea, starting in Incheon on July 3 and spreading rapidly  to other cities. Chinese sources estimate that 146 people were killed, 546 wounded, and a considerable number of properties were destroyed . The worst riot occurred in Pyongyang on July 5. In this effect, the Japanese had a considerable influence on sinophobia in Korea. Starting in October 1950, the People's Volunteer Army fought in the Korean War (1950–1953) on the side of North Korea against South Korean and United Nations troops. The participation of the PVA made the relations between South Korea and China hostile. Throughout the Cold War, there were no official relations between capitalist South Korea and communist  China until August 24, 1992, when formal diplomatic relations were established between Seoul and Beijing. In the 1960s, South Korean laws directed against foreign property ownership, at a time when most foreign ownership was by ethnic Chinese, led to many Chinese emigrating from South Korea to Taiwan. Recent history. In the early 2000s, a dispute over the history of Goguryeo, which both Koreas and China claim as their own, caused tension between the two countries. Anti-Chinese sentiments in South Korea have been on a steady rise since 2002. According to the Pew Global Attitude Project, favorable view of China  steadily declined from 66% in 2002 to 48% in 2008, while unfavorable view of China rose from 31% in 2002 to 49% in 2008. According to polls by the East Asia Institute, positive view of China's influence declined from 48.6% in 2005 to 38% in 2009, while negative view of Chinese influence rose from 46.7% in 2005 to 50% in 2008. During the Seoul leg of the 2008 Olympic torch relay, over 6,000 Chinese students clashed with protesters. Chinese demonstrators clashed with local activists who rallied to protest the torch relay, citing Beijing's discouraging treatment of North Korea  defectors and the regime's crackdown on Tibetans' rioting for independence. With the result of these violent clashes in central Seoul, anti-Chinese sentiments in Korea aroused great indignation toward the Chinese people. The Ministry of Justice of South Korea indicated that it would punish all such demonstrators, regardless of nationality. The Government of South Korea is toughening visa regulations for Chinese students. Relations further strained with the deployment of THAAD in South Korea in 2017, for which China started its boycott against Korea, causing Koreans to develop anti-Chinese sentiment over reports of economic retaliation by Beijing. A study  in 2018 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences showed anti-Chinese sentiments in South Korea is becoming serious, with the majority of South Koreans expressing positive sentiments towards the United States and negative sentiments towards China. This contradicts a previous study by the same institute in 2017 that South Korea, in the long term, will not be able to maintain an anti-US stance against Chinese and Russian retaliation. According to the study, since 2013, it has become a trans-generational and trans-political trend in South Korea where the younger generation in their 20s have higher perceptions of China  as a threat than the older generation in their 60s. The study deduced three factors behind anti-Chinese sentiments in South Korea, which are cold war ideology, nationalism and China threat theory. According to its analysis, anti-Chinese sentiments first began to rise with the Northeast Project in 2004, and took a decisive turn for the worse in the THAAD conflict in 2017. According to a poll released by the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University in 2018, 46 percent of South Koreans find China as the most threatening country to inter-Korean peace (compared to  33 percent for North Korea), marking the first time China was seen as a bigger threat than North Korea since the survey began in 2007. Chinese government answered the anti-Chinese sentiment in Korea because of complex caused by two neighbouring advanced countries, China, and Japan. Cultural hostility. On October 13, 2020, RM, a member of the South Korean K-pop group BTS, made a speech about the Korean War, where he reflected on South Korea's shared history with the United States through the pains and losses from the war. On social media, there was criticism from Chinese nationals  against BTS for leaving out China's role in the civil war (during which it sided with North Korea to fight against South Korea). In response, negative sentiments toward China rose in South Korea, as Koreans viewed the Chinese response as exaggerating the situation without contextualizing RM's statement. The 2022 Winter Olympics saw detoritiation of China and South Korean relationship. During the opening ceremony, China has raised a controversy among South Korean public as "Hanbok" was displayed during the ceremony. The display has caused uproar among South Korean public and politicians calling it "cultural appropriation". The relationship detoriates even  more after the Men's 1000 metre short-track speedskating event incident which South Korean skaters Hwang Dae-heon and Lee June-seo were disqualified from the event. South Korea later filed a protest to International Skating Union, which the ISU rejected.The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee later filed an official appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In Seoul, a small scaled protest erupted in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul with protesters was seen tearing the Chinese flag and shouting anti-Chinese slogans.