Tit For THAAD

Many hackles were raised when South Korea recently decided to deploy a U.S. missile defense system poetically named "THAAD."  Conservative Koreans thought it was a necessary step against North Korea and possible Chinese aggression.  Liberals thought it was yet another multi-million dollar giveaway to the United States via military spending.  A larger issue was that China might somehow retaliate, given that Seoul and Beijing have deep economic ties.

Lo and behold, China just dropped the hammer on the growing, lucrative tourism business in South Korea:

"The Chinese government told provincial travel agencies to cut the number of tourists traveling to Korea by over 20 percent compared to last year, according to various sources on Monday.

Sources in the Korean Embassy in China, consulates and travel agencies said that city and provincial governments, including in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shaanxi, contacted travel agencies in their regions either by phone or by meeting with executives and delivered this directive."

Obvious economic downturn aside, it's interesting that a country like China can just decide to order up a 20 percent decrease in tourism to another country.  I guess dictatorships do have their advantages.