South Koreans, Chinese clash on social media over Chinese-style kimchi winning international certificate

SEOUL: China’s efforts to win an international certification for pao cai, a pickled vegetable dish from Sichuan, is turning into a social media showdown between Chinese and South Korean netizens over the origin of kimchi, a staple Korean cuisine made of cabbage. Beijing recently won a certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for pao cai, an achievement the state-run Global Times reported as “an international standard for the kimchi industry led by China.” South Korean media was fast to dispute such a claim and accuse the bigger neighbour of trying to make kimchi a type of China-made pao…