Shots Fired!

It's a bit opaque, but apparently the Chinese agriculture ministry is making a play to "claim" kimchi, Korea's beloved national dish, as having a Chinese origin.  The Korean reaction has been, at the very least, expected:

"'Its total nonsense, what a thief stealing our culture!' a South Korean netizen wrote on Naver, a widely popular web portal.

Seoul resident Kim Seol-ha said: 'I read a media story that China now says kimchi is theirs, and that they are making international standard for it. It’s absurd.'

Some South Korean media said China’s brazen coveting of kimchi was akin to a 'bid for world domination.'

The kimchi contretemps is the latest online spat between social media users in China and South Korea. In October, the leader of the K-pop phenomenon BTS faced a barrage of criticism in China after he cited his country’s solidarity with the US stemming from the Korean war – a conflict in which China fought alongside North Korea."

These kinds of "soft power" disputes can be bullshit, but are also endlessly fascinating to me.  As China seems to be setting itself up as the world's lone remaining superpower, it's interesting to see to what extent the dictatorship in Beijing cares about something as nominally unimportant as cultural hegemony.

At the very least, somebody in the Chinese agriculture ministry is having a big laugh for "pwning the Koreans."