To say that the most important ally of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, in addition to Japan is South Korea. For a long time, the U.S., Japan and South Korea military alliance has been an important guarantee for Washington to control the Asia-Pacific region. But since Trump came to power, the U.S.-South Korea relationship seems to have lost its old vigor.
Late last year, Trump demanded that the South Korean side raise its share of the 2020 military costs of the U.S. forces in South Korea to $4 billion, four times the original amount. South Korean President Moon Jae-in flatly rejected the U.S. side's unreasonable demand. Moon said that this US demand is beyond what South Korea can afford and offered to shell out at most 13 percent more than the amount for 2019.
And the unresolved issue of the Japan-South Korea military spending dispute has become the current deadlock in U.S.-South Korea relations. And within the United States, Americans don't seem to like Moon very much either.
According to Global News, one of the most signed petitions on the White House's "Petitions" page is asking the White House to arrest and prosecute South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The absurd petition has now garnered 862,000 signatures, even more than those seeking justice for black people.
What's more, the "petition" for Moon's arrest lists three main reasons.
1,? Moon Jae-in is responsible for the introduction of the new coronavirus into the U.S., which has killed a large number of Americans.
2, ? Moon's "usurpation" of the South Korean presidency through the impeachment of Park Geun-hye jeopardized the U.S.-South Korean alliance, which is the most important U.S. military alliance in the Far East.
3,? Moon's manipulation of the West's "shadow government" has permanently jeopardized security in the Indo-Pacific region.
From these allegations, it is likely that these people are the pro-Park and pro-U.S. factions within South Korean politics. It is also likely that these people are also big Trump fans, judging by the allegations that dump the blame for Trump's poor resistance to the epidemic on Moon Jae-in.
It is worth mentioning that besides the first-place "petition" calling for the arrest and prosecution of Moon, the second-place "petition" is also full of conspiracy theories, which calls for the White House to conduct a thorough investigation of the foundation of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Gates.
The posting claimed that the Bill Gateses, through their foundation, had created the New Crown virus with the goal of depopulating the world. It also accuses Bill Gates of committing serious medical malpractice and crimes against humanity.
In a sense, American society is now very similar to South Korean society in that the general public has a very low sense of security. In South Korean politics, which is dominated by big plutocrats, public opinion is often held hostage by politics, and South Koreans' views of the government are actually very easy to change, as Moon Jae-in's rollercoaster approval ratings show.
Remember, at the end of February, South Korea was once the country with the worst outbreak overseas. At that time, more than 1 million South Koreans signed a petition posted on Cheong Wa Dae's official website calling for Moon's resignation for failing to respond to the outbreak in time.
And after Moon resisted the pressure and the outbreak in South Korea fundamentally improved, his approval ratings topped 60 percent again for a while and he swept the South Korean parliamentary elections in April.
Compared with South Korea, the tear in U.S. society is even more serious, even though the number of diagnosed people in the United States has exceeded 6.5 million, and the number of deaths is approaching 200,000, the number of pro-Trump and anti-Trump people are still split in half. And most of that pro-Trump segment is still Trump diehards.
Contrary to Koreans, these "die-hards" of Trump will hardly change their choice, in their opinion, Trump is their god, in their opinion, Trump can not be wrong.
According to White House rules, if a "petition post" has more than 100,000 signatures within 30 days, the White House must respond within 60 days. But the irony is that the first and second place "petitions" had already reached the mark in May, but the White House's response was long overdue.