Seoul frustrated with China’s foreign policy

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Chinese leaders have few source of legitimacy other than providing continued economic growth, and that domestic constraint has an effect on China’s responses to global issues including North Korea, an expert observed Thursday.

David Kang, a professor of the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California, made the remarks as “China strategy” became the buzzwords among South Koreans after they became frustrated with Beijing’s motives behind its assertive foreign policy.

In an email interview with The Korea Times, Kang noted China’s foreign policy is dictated by two internal concerns: keeping the domestic population under control and keeping economic growth moving forward.

“This dictates how they act in their foreign policy. And so when they feel threatened domestically, they lash out in foreign policy,” he said. “In this, it is more defensive nationalism than aggressive behavior.”

Professor Kang, the author of “China Rising: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia,” elaborated that economic growth is key to maintaining regime stability in China.

“There is no question that China in the past year or so has become more assertive, and has moved from ‘smile diplomacy’ to ‘frown diplomacy.’ This also has had the effect of making Koreans, Japanese and others far more frustrated with and suspicious of Chinese motives,” he underlined.

“In short, I think China has badly misplayed their foreign policy over the past year and made things worse for themselves.”

The changing diplomatic landscape, including China’s rise to become the world’s second largest economy last year and its growing economic and military clout, has pressurized Seoul officials to rewrite policy.

Last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade set up the China Center at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security to strengthen research on China to better handle bilateral ties with South Korea’s number one trading partner. The ministry also plans to place more staff in the center this year.

The move came in the wake of Beijing remaining reluctant to join global efforts at the U.N. Security Council to pinpoint North Korea as being behind the sinking of the warship Cheonan in waters near the maritime border in the West Sea last March. The tragedy took the lives of 46 sailors.

China, a decades-long benefactor of North Korea, didn’t halt its support for the reclusive state even after the North shelled a South Korean island last November, following the unveiling of a brand-new centrifuge plant with more than 1,000 centrifuges to a visiting U.S. scientist.

Regarding North Korea’s enriched uranium program, Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman of the Chinese foreign ministry, told reporters that Pyongyang has the right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes. She added one condition that at the same time, the North must allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect in its nuclear sites.

The official’s remarks caused a stir in Seoul as some experts here took her words to mean that was defending North Korea’s uranium program. Citing phone talks with Chinese officials, a government source here clarified that Jiang was quoted out of context,

However, China’s defending its ally for fear of instability on the Korean Peninsula, despite the latter’s bad behavior, remains a key policy task for South Korean officials to deal with.

Kang noted the North Korean problem is going to affect all relations in Northeast Asia.

“While that won’t keep economic ties or other diplomatic relations from moving forward, North Korea could always become an issue that makes everything else become secondary as we saw this past year,” he said.

“So not only for China-Korea relations, but for all bilateral ties, they are affected by the ups and downs of the North Korea problem. So it’s not inevitable that problems with North Korea mean bad relations with China or that good South-North Korea relations mean bad relations with the United States.”

중국이 “발끈”할 때는 이런 공통점이...

중국이 대외정책에서 오만함을 보일 때는 ‘국내정치에 문제가 생겼을 때’ 라고 한 중국 전문가는 밝혔다. USC 대학 국제관계학과 교수이자 한국학 연구소 소장인 데이비드 강에 따르면 중국정부는 내부적으로 정통성문제에 직면해 있으며 이 같은 문제를 잠재우기 위해서는 현재와 같은 지속적인 경제성장이 필요하다는 것을 중국 공산당과 정치인들이 잘 인지하고 있다고 Korea Times와의 인터뷰에서 밝혔다.

국내문제를 관리하고 경제성장을 지속시키는 것을 중국정부의 두개 핵심 목표라고 갈파한 데이비드 강 교수에 따르면 이러한 핵심 목표를 달성하기 위한 수단으로 외교정책이 활용된다는 것.

또한 그는 북한의 농축 우라늄 프로그램을 두둔하는 것 같은 중국 관리들의 발언이나, 센카쿠 열도를 둘러싼 일본과의 갈등, 그리고 중국 어부들의 불법 조업 사례 등에서 보인 중국 정부의 오만함은 “국내용”이라고 분석한다.

일부 한국에서 제기되는 북한 문제를 둘러싼 대중외교 문제점에 대해, 데이비드 강 교수는 북한문제는 한-중 관계뿐만 아니라 동북아와 관련된 모든 양자관계에 영향을 준다고 밝혔다.