Beijing Newspeak

More than a month has now passed since senior Korean diplomat Whang Joung-il died at Vista Clinic in Beijing. Yet the cause of his death has still not been officially confirmed by the Chinese authorities despite the issue being raised at the Ministry of Health press conference yesterday. In fact, the comments by new Health Minister Chen Zhu only served to ensure listeners were even more befuddled. This is the (unpolished) Xinhua report from yesterday:

BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — The death of a senior diplomat of Republic of Korea (ROK) in China was not caused by food-originated diseases, although he died after eating a tuna sandwich, Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu said on Wednesday.

The death of Whang Joung-il was not caused by food related diseases, and “I was 100 percent sure” of that, Chen said at a press conference in response to a question raised by a Wall Street Journal reporter.

The Ministry of Health has organized authoritative experts to conduct medical test on Whang’s case to find out the cause of his death and the result had been handed out to the ROK side via diplomatic channels, Chen said, adding the ministry was looking forward to exchanging ideas with the ROK in order to further determine the cause.

Chen said he had read a report from a ROK media that quoted a leading ROK institution that Whang’s death was caused by excessive work and cardiologic diseases.

Whang, 52, a major diplomat at the ROK embassy in Beijing, suffered severe stomach pains and vomiting after eating a sandwich bought nearby on July 28. He was brought to the Beijing’s Vista Clinic the following morning and died two hours later.

“Minister Whang was an old friend of China. We feel grieved about his death, and I want to take the opportunity to express our condolences to Whang’s family and the ROK People,” Chen said.

He said Whang had made great contribution to the Sino-ROK relationship, and “any media reports that play up his death were a disrespect to him and not humanitarian”.

Back to the beginning of this mess. On July 29, Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported that Whang had died while being treated at a Beijing clinic. The Korean embassy believed his death was caused by either a sandwich he had eaten the previous evening or by an injection of Ringer’s solution he had received at the clinic. The Ministry of Health “seized the solution for investigation”, performed an autopsy on the body and promised to deliver the results to the Korean embassy as soon as possible.

Chosun Ilbo then went on the attack the same day with arguably premature speculation.

Whang’s sudden death reminded us in Beijing of the fact that we live under the threat of tainted food and bogus drugs in China. Right now there’s a controversy over whether Chinese vendors really sold steamed dumplings stuffed with chemical-laced cardboard masquerading as pork. There have also been reports of shipments of bogus human blood meant for transfusions. It’s a sad reminder that 600,000 Koreans working and living in China, including diplomats, corporate executives and students, are exposed to very real dangers posed by phony food and medicine.

Two weeks later the same newspaper produced a strangely brief two-par story which said the Chinese health authorities had unofficially confirmed that Whang had died from an injection of the antibiotic Rocephin which can be fatal when mixed with drugs containing calcium. However these results had not been conveyed to the Korean embassy. It also said the Chinese health ministry had promised to punish Vista Clinic, who denied it had done anything wrong and claimed Whang died from a heart attack.

Nine days later and Chosun Ilbo was back on the offensive with this biting editorial, which included:

When Korean officials raised the possibility of a misdiagnosis or wrong prescription to the Chinese official, he responded by asking why Whang chose to go to such a “low grade” hospital. His tone was as if Whang was to blame for his death for choosing the wrong hospital. But that hospital happens to be a prominent one in Beijing and is frequented by foreigners. Nor is it some cheap clinic either. It charges US$140 for an initial exam. If such a hospital is truly “low grade”, then perhaps Whang should have used a hospital catering to Beijing’s elite bureaucrats. Judging by Beijing’s nonchalance in dealing with this incident, one perforce feels that China has a long ways to go. It may appear to be on its way to becoming a global leader. But it seems there is no way that country will be able to assume such a responsible role as long as it behaves this way.

A day later Associated Press released this report (via The Boston Globe) which featured reaction from Whang’s family, who said the Korean embassy had been informed earlier in the month that Whang died of a heart attack.

The family is also pressing to see the autopsy findings, calling it an unusually long delay considering the case involved a high-level diplomat.

The family is “deeply concerned that his death will be erased,” Whang’s son, Tae-ho, said in a statement yesterday.

The AP report also featured a quote which demonstrated the unwillingness of the Korean government to criticize China openly.

“We’ve asked China to give us an outcome that is fair, objective, and acceptable,” a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said on the condition of anonymity, citing the issue’s sensitivity.

Another week passes and along comes an intriguing article from Asia Times, which comments on the diplomatic complications that seem to be at the heart of the snail-paced investigations. The lead par sets the tone:

The low-key, drawn-out inquiry into the death of a senior South Korean diplomat in China makes pundits wonder what’s really behind the actions - or inaction - of Seoul and Beijing in this highly sensitive yet very much under-reported case.

It mentions the expected dearth of reporting on the issue in the Chinese media:

The news was suppressed in China - understandably. Among the major dailies in Beijing, only the Beijing News ventured to write about it. But oddly enough, even though the incident had happened in Beijing, the Beijing News’ short piece was gleaned from the Xin Kuai Bao (Express News) - a newspaper in faraway Guangdong province near Hong Kong.

Reaction from unnamed “observers” follows, including the opinion of a South Korean scholar:

“Beijing must have offered some concessions to Seoul. My hunch is that it might be something on the six-party talks [over North Korea's nuclear program] or some economic deals. Otherwise, given the magnitude of the incident, the kind of low gesture by South Korea when its own senior diplomat had died is unthinkable as a sovereign country. Even a country which has less diplomatic muscle than South Korea would have lodged a stronger protest.”

And then the conclusion:

In a nutshell, what appeared to be a poor diplomatic maneuver from South Korea on the death of its envoy in China may actually have been a choreographed deal between the two countries meant to save China’s face, the argument goes.

All this highlights the inadequacy of Health Minister Chen Zhu’s response at yesterday’s conference. He refused to divulge the cause of Whang’s death, saying it had been provided to the Koreans “via diplomatic channels”. I would think Whang’s family might have something to say about that - both to the Chinese government and its own. Chen even started quoting speculation in the Korean media that the diplomat had died from “excessive work and cardiologic diseases” despite having full knowledge of the autopsy results. His closing comments, as detailed above, were made all the more galling by an article in today’s China Daily headlined “New health chief shines on debut” which told, awe-struck, of Chen’s ability to smile throughout the two-hour conference and the spontaneous reaction of all reporters present who rose to their feet at the end of the speeches in order to laden him with applause.

In the meantime, Vista Clinic is continuing to treat patients having not been required to explain itself.