China further eases entry for Koreans amid row with US

Visa applicants are lined up outside the Chinese Consulate in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

By Yi Whan-woo

China is further easing entry regulations for citizens from Korea over other countries, in what is seen as a bid to woo Seoul over the intensifying row between Beijing and Washington.

China's embassy and consulates in Korea have begun to receive visa applications from Korean students and jobseekers, Wednesday, after Beijing suspended entry of most foreigners in late March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those who have a valid residence permit for China will be also allowed to apply for re-entry.

Successful visa applicants need to turn in a certificate of negative COVD-19 test results to the Chinese diplomatic missions five days prior to their departure.

The move is seen as an extension of China's "fast-track" entry ― an arrival system with a set of streamlined quarantine regulations that China introduced in May for a select group of Korean businesspeople, such as employees of conglomerates.

This makes South Korea the first country for China to normalize visa issuance and other entry procedures with after the COVID-19 crisis.

The accelerated entry cooperation is aimed at restoring bilateral economic partnership which has been hard hit by the pandemic.

Still, analysts viewed that China is implicitly trying to draw Korea to its side in the long term to counter the U.S. strategy of bringing its allies together in the Asia-Pacific.

"It would be too naive to say the eased entry will be solely to restore economic activities," said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong Global University. "The underlying idea is to capitalize on Korea to make U.S. strategy to contain China trickier."

Park referred to Korea's export reliance on China and argued the country is the "weakest link" of the American allies in U.S. initiatives, such as the Indo-Pacific alliance and Economic Prosperity Network (EPN).

The Indo-Pacific alliance could be interpreted as a move to curb China's military and economic rise in the region. The EPN could function to isolate China from critical supply chains.

Japan, Australia and India are the U.S. main allies in the initiatives. The U.S. has urged Korea to join but Seoul has been cautious about making commitments.

"The biggest reason for Seoul being cautious is because of economic ties with China, and Beijing knows all too well how to use trade and business as leverage," Park said.

Kim Dong-yeop, a research professor at the Kyungnam University Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said China's latest conflicts with Australia and India have made Beijing focus on Korea over other U.S. allies.

Australia-China relations have become tetchy over a couple of months following Australia's calls for an independent inquiry into China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and China's retaliatory measures.

A deadly brawl between Chinese and Indian troops in the disputed Himalayan border region in June led to even greater anti-Chinese sentiment in India.

"And this leaves Korea an important country for China not to lose in the region," Kim said.

Kim speculated China, to better woo Korea, may push for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Seoul. The two sides initially agreed on Xi's visit "in the first half" of the year but it was postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19.

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