Decoding guanxi in China’s approach to NK

The following is the sixth in a series of articles examining Seoul-Beijing ties following the tumultuous relationship between the two countries last year. — ED.

By Sunny Lee

BEIJING — On April 1985, China’s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) explained to his foreign policy aides why it would be a good idea to establish diplomatic ties with South Korea, then a Cold War enemy.

“Firstly, doing business with South Korea is good for China’s economy. Secondly, it can sever Taiwan-South Korea ties,” Deng said, as shown in the memoirs by Qian Qichen (1928- ), a prominent Chinese diplomat who later played a key role as foreign minister in the actual establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations seven years later.

Analysts characterized the nature of the two countries’ relationship since then as a honeymoon. That didn’t include last year after the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong incidents revealed Seoul as being relegated to the position of a jilted lover when Beijing sided with Pyongyang despite the latter’s wild and uncouth behavior.

South Korea mistakenly believed that it had become a more important companion to China than North Korea. That’s particularly so because the economic relations between the two countries are robust amid deepening bilateral relations, with Beijing becoming Seoul’s largest trading partner.

South Korea thus had a hard time understanding China and poured its feelings of frustration, if not betrayal, onto the Middle Kingdom when the latter refused to condemn North Korea’s provocations last year.

At the same time, much psychological analysis transpired to explain why Beijing sticks to Pyongyang the way it does. It ranges from China’s regarding North Korea as a buffer against the U.S. military in East Asia and its preference to maintain the status quo, to Beijing’s “identity crisis” of not yet ready to play the role of a responsible global superpower.

All these attempts were from the political science angle. Maybe there’s more to the picture. Cho Dong-sung, a professor of business strategy at Seoul National University, tries to decode it from the “guanxi” perspective.

Guanxi is a central idea in Chinese society and can be translated as connections or relationships. Newsweek once wrote a piece characterizing China as a place “where guanxi rules.” A foreign businessman in China can’t get much done without guanxi. It is also the primary social fabric in which favors are exchanged between two parties.

Guanxi, extended as a collective national consciousness, can also explain certain policy decisions made by China.

“South Korea used to have diplomatic ties with Taiwan. But when it saw an increasingly influential mainland China, it abandoned Taiwan. But China didn’t abandon North Korea after it established diplomatic relations with economically vibrant South Korea. Why?” Cho asked

“Only when we understand the reason for that, can we also find a clue as to why Beijing still sticks to Pyongyang.”

Cho believes guanxi is a useful tool to unknot the puzzle. He views that China continues to stick to North Korea, even at the expense of risking international criticism “because the guanxi between Beijing and Pyongyang remains largely intact.”

Even though North Korea displeased China with its nuclear tests, the provocation was not directed against it. And while the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong incidents were destabilizing factors for regional security, they were inter-Korean affairs, not China’s. Overall, during the ups and downs of North Korea’s relations with China over the last six decades, Cho believes that Pyongyang has not crossed the line in a major way, thus not falling out of Beijing’s graces.

From this Cho believes, “China is not in a position to take the first initiative to sever relations with North Korea unless the latter gives major offense to the former.”

Guanxi is in the Chinese blood and is often esteemed highly as a synonymous virtue of loyalty in a relationship too. In the Chinese classic, “The Three Kingdoms,” Guan Yu keeps his guanxi with Liu Bei, without ever betraying the latter, and even risking his life.

“Guan Yu is arguably the most revered person in the minds of the Chinese because he chose guanxi over rationality. South Korea may tell China to behave in a ‘rational manner’ in its dealings with Pyongyang, pointing out the North’s bad behaviors. But it should also understand the guanxi psyche still prevails for the time being,” said Cho.