Netizens mock Global Times embrace of N Korea's heritary rule

[CuttingItFine]

Netizens mock Global Times embrace of N Korea's heritary rule
Staff Reporter 2013-08-14 15:48

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves to the crowd in Pyongyang on July 27, 2013. (Photo/Xinhua)

Chinese internet users have expressed both anger and amusement over an editorial published in the nationalistic Global Times tabloid supporting North Korea's recent decision to revise its leadership ideology to justify the inheritance of power by current leader Kim Jong-un, reports Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency first reported on Aug. 12 that North Korea had revised its "10 rules of its monolithic ideological system" in June, marking the first time the country had amended the rules in nearly four decades.

The revision placed a specific emphasis on justifying incumbent 29-year-old leader Kim Jong-un's inheritance of power from his late father Kim Jong-il, who in turn had inherited the leadership from his father and DPRK founder Kim Il-sung. Strengthening Kim Jong-un's power is needed to complete the legacy he inherited from his father and grandfather, the revision explained.

Under the revised rules, references to the dictatorship of the proletariat and communism have all been omitted, according to the Yonhap report.

In contrast to the mocking reaction of South Korean media, the Global Times, a tabloid under the auspices of the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily, expressed support for the North Korean amendment, saying that China respects other sovereign nations, including their political decisions.

The editorial added that China has some leaders and academics who look down on North Korea, much like South Koreans and Americans, and condemned those who suggest that China is merely a "larger version of North Korea" to deny the progress and achievements the country has achieved.

Within an hour of the editorial being published, the paper's official microblog was flooded by more than 1,500 comments.

While many netizens mockingly praised the brash confidence of the piece's author, believed to be the paper's chief editor Hu Xijin, others expressed anger that the Global Times — and by insinuation Beijing — appeared to validate the principle of hereditary rule where it might be expected to be denounced as a relic of feudalism and/or imperialism.

Chinese netizens discussed the importance of constitutionalism and the socialist road China was on, adding that the North Korea conjures up images of what China might have been like if Mao Zedong's eldest son Mao Anying had survived and succeeded him. Mao Anying was killed in 1950 while fighting in the Korean War.