South Korea presidential ouster part of Chinese strategy to ‘expand its regional influence,’ expert says

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South Korean president declared then lifted martial law amid unrest

Fox News’ Stephanie Bennett has more on the political struggle after South Korea’s parliament voted to defy the martial law declaration on ‘Special Report.’

In a week that saw French right-wing leader Marine Le Pen banned from running for office, the South Korean Constitutional Court’s ouster of President Yoon Suk Yeol from office on Friday has critics looking towards Beijing’s hand in efforts to remove the leader from power.

“Yoon’s foreign and security policies stand in stark contrast to the pro-China figures long supported and controlled by the [Chinese Communist Party (CCP)],” Anna Mahjar-Barducci, Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) project director, told Fox News Digital. She explained that those policies “posed a threat to Beijing’s long-term strategy of cultivating a pro-China faction in South Korea,”

Mahjar-Barducci claimed the CCP has used “overt economic cooperation, political donations, covert benefit transfers and even illegal sexual bribery” to cultivate “certain South Korean political figures over time, aiming to undermine the U.S.-South Korea alliance, weaken South Korea’s strategic independence and expand its regional influence at the expense of the U.S.” 

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Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stage a rally to oppose his impeachment in Seoul, South Korea, on March 8. (AP)

Mahjar-Barducci also claimed that one Korean activist who spoke to her on Friday told her that election fraud in South Korea had been organized in cooperation with China, whose government had unduly influenced the past two general elections. 

The Associated Press reported on Friday that supporters of the ousted president were enraged by the decision. Kim Min-seon, a Yoon supporter, is quoted as saying it was the only way to deal with liberals blocking Yoon’s efforts to fight Pyongyang and Beijing’s campaigns to threaten South Korea’s democracy through cyberattacks, disinformation and technology theft — something denied by the opposition party. 

Yoon had long provoked the ire of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un over his plans to increase his country’s nuclear capacity. The former South Korean leader sought increased cooperation with the U.S. as a deterrent to the North Korean threat.

A spokesman from the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. did not answer Fox News Digital questions on allegations the country interferes in Seoul’s politics. Questions sent to the South Korean embassy were not returned. 

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Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on the sidelines of the 31st APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Lima, Peru, on Nov. 15, 2024. (Ding Lin/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Mahjar-Barducci also explained that given the “intensive coverage by Beijing’s media” of Yoon’s dismissal, the CCP is “brimming with pride” and “extremely pleased” with the turn of events. Beijing “has already taken down two pro-American South Korean presidents, Park Geun-hye and Yoon Suk Yeol, which shows just how deep Beijing’s infiltration and influence in South Korea are,” she said.

“South Korea needs to be the strongest ally, along with Japan, of America,” Mahjar-Barducci continued. But Beijing is poising itself to “win over this important strategic area,” which the U.S. “cannot afford to lose.”

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China’s Shandong aircraft carrier is seen near Taiwan on March 31. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)

Mahjar-Barducci said Yoon’s removal is part of a “pattern… all over the world” of right-wing candidates being forbidden from seeking election, including Romanian right-wing presidential frontrunner Călin Georgescu and French right-wing politician Le Pen. “The judiciary has been weaponized once again,” she explained.

The CCP’s hand in South Korea comes at a time when Beijing is holding large-scale military drills around Taiwan, with 19 vessels from the Chinese navy being spotted in the waters surrounding Taiwan between Monday and Tuesday morning. Mahjar-Barducci said that while Beijing has attempted to make such drills “a new normal,” it has also warned that the “drills could unexpectedly turn into a real war.”

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South Korea will hold elections for a new president in two months. Fox News Digital has reported that surveys show liberal opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung is “an early favorite” for the position.

Beth Bailey is a reporter covering Afghanistan, the Middle East, Asia, and Central America. She was formerly a civilian intelligence analyst with the Department of the Army. You can follow Beth on Twitter @BWBailey85