China's coastal city of Qingdao is not going to participate in a scheduled chicken and beer festival in Daegu, South Korea, probably due to anger caused by South Korea's decision to deploy the THAAD anti-missile system.
An insider from the event's organizing committee revealed that the Qingdao side informed them days ago that it wouldn't attend the festival and hopes that Daegu will not come to the Qingdao International Beer Festival in August either, simply saying that the time is not appropriate for these kinds of exchanges without indicating any specific reasons.
The unexpected decision might abort plans for both Qingdao's art troupe's performance at the annual Chimek Festival in the southern Korean city and the Daegu mayor's scheduled trip to Qingdao for bilateral economic engagement.
Analysts say Qingdao's move is due to South Korea's decision to deploy the anti-missile system, which has strained tensions between the two neighbors.
The festival began in 2013 in the southeastern Korean city, which claims to be the hometown of fried chicken. "Chimek" is a combination of "chi" for chicken and "mek" for mekju, the Korean word for beer.
