Gordon Chang, the Always-Wrong Right-Wing Hawk Supporting Yoon Suk-yeol's Coup

Supporters of American coup leader rally around South Korean coup leader.

Gordon G. Chang, who is best known for his prediction that China would collapse by 2011, spoke to right-wing activist and former Trump administration communications official Mercedes Schlapp in defense of Yoon Suk-yeol one day after the anniversary of Trump’s own coup attempt.

Yoon declared martial law on the night of December 3. After opposition lawmakers braved armed troops to enter the Legislature and vote to overturn martial law, Yoon was eventually impeached on December 27 and is now hunkering down in the presidential palace as he resists an arrest warrant.

On Schlapp’s podcast, Chang blamed Korean liberals for the political chaos. I kid you not. The Choson Daily summarizes:

Chang characterized South Korea’s political crisis as a left-wing push to destabilize the government.

Yoon, who, it bears repeating, declared martial law, was a favorite of the Korean right-wing during Moon Jae-in’s presidency and joined the conservative People Power Party in 2021, winning the party’s nomination and subsequently the presidential election. The People Power Party is not left-wing.

He accused the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) of overreaching by attempting to impeach key officials, including Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Acting President Choi Sang-mok, following President Yoon Suk-yeol’s controversial martial law declaration.

Han was impeached because, while serving as acting President following Yoon’s impeachment, Han obstructed bills to appoint special counsels to investigate the martial law orders and blocked attempts to fill vacancies on the Constitutional Court. The court will preside over Yoon’s impeachment trial and must have a full panel to work properly.

After Han’s impeachment, then-acting Choi appointed two of the judges, so the impeachment of Han seems to have achieved its aim, but there is still one vacancy.

Chang also criticized DPK leader Lee Jae-myung, a potential presidential contender, labeling him a “relentless leftist” facing criminal charges. He suggested Lee might be accelerating efforts to impeach Yoon to secure his own political future before a court ruling could disqualify his candidacy.

It is strange that Chang would criticize any politician for having been the subject of a criminal investigation (as Lee was during and after the 2022 presidential election), when Chang is such a strong supporter of Donald Trump, who has faced multiple criminal investigations and indictments and been convicted on 34 counts of felony.

Gordon G. Chang has never been known for his sound analysis. In 2001, he published The Coming Collapse of China. It’s been two and a half decades, and Chang is still warning that the U.S. must prepare for war with China. He’s a deranged conspiracy theorist who believes that Covid-19 was a “biological weapon.”

So it’s clear that no one should be listening to Chang, but unfortunately for South Korea and the U.S., the incoming Trump administration might be amenable to the views of Chang—or people who think like he does. Trump, like Yoon, holds authoritarian viewpoints and has gotten away with inciting a riot to subvert democracy. He has signaled that he plans to staff his administration with fringe extremists who believe in the same kinds of things that Chang believes in.

Because the U.S. has such close military ties to South Korea, Koreans unfortunately have to be wary of what an American Yoon might do even after removing their own Yoon from office.