Relations with China grow trickier after Yoon-Xi summit

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Sat, December 9, 2023 | 14:28

Foreign Affairs

Relations with China grow trickier after Yoon-Xi summit

Posted : 2022-11-16 16:58

Updated : 2022-11-17 15:14

President Yoon Suk-yeol approaches Chinese President Xi Jinping for a handshake during their summit at a hotel in Bali, Indonesia, Wednesday. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

The summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday served its role of creating momentum to improve tangled Seoul-Beijing relations, but at the same time showed that the two countries' differences on key diplomatic issues are at a standstill after a three-year hiatus in their summit diplomacy.

Experts said the summit left South Korea with the difficult task of looking for ways to renew its relations with China in a productive way while strengthening its commitment to the alliance between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.

Yoon and Xi sat down for talks for 25 minutes on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. It was the first summit between the two countries since Dec. 23, 2019, when Yoon's predecessor Moon Jae-in and Xi met in Beijing.

During the summit, Yoon said bilateral relations must be "mature bilateral ties based on the value of mutual respect and reciprocity," while Xi said the two countries can work together to achieve "true multilateralism," as opposed to unilateralism dominated by one single country.

The comments were interpreted as highlighting their differing views of bilateral relations.

Under Yoon's presidency, Seoul has tipped the balance of its diplomacy toward the U.S. over China amid his belief that South Korea should pursue coalitions with countries sharing universal values and rules-based orders to protect its national interests.

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In response, China has been demanding South Korea to uphold the so-called "Three Nos" policy ― no additional deployment of the U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in South Korea, no participation in a U.S.-led missile defense network, and no involvement in a trilateral military alliance with the U.S. and Japan.

Against this backdrop, Yoon's reference to mature ties, reciprocity and mutual respect are interpreted as telling China to respect South Korea's diplomatic direction and refrain from intervening in Seoul's decisions.

"It is an unusual situation that a country is intervening in another country's foreign policies," said Lee Dong-gyu, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. "A mature relation would mean refraining from intervening in each other's policies. In other words, the comment would mean that China should not comment on Yoon's diplomatic direction of pursuing rules and values and fulfilling Seoul's responsibility as a liberal democracy and respect this."

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during his summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at a hotel in Bali, Indonesia, Tuesday. Yonhap

However, the differences Yoon and Xi showed during their summit cast a cloudy outlook on whether Seoul can establish such relations with China while maintaining reciprocity.

When it comes to North Korea's nuclear and missile ambitions, one of South Korea's top security priorities, the two leaders showed subtle differences in their perceptions in addressing the threats. Xi said Seoul should take the lead in improving inter-Korean relations when Yoon asked for Beijing's "constructive role" in addressing the issue.

During the summit, the two leaders agreed to a prompt conclusion of phase two negotiations of the South Korea-China free trade agreement, but pessimism looms over the prospect of economic cooperation between the two countries, because the concept of economic security _ an attempt to lower supply chain vulnerabilities through coalitions between like-minded countries _ is rising as the new trade norm.

Also, conflicts over history and cultural contents are spurring negative public sentiment against each other, making it difficult for the two countries find a common ground from which they can build up talks for improved relations.

A senior presidential official cited global issues such as "climate change or supply chain resilience" as common grounds that the two countries can use for talks to improve relations, but this also faces questions over whether they can actually lead to improved bilateral ties.

"There are many aspects that require cooperation between the two countries, but it seems uneasy for them to actually cooperate in the fields of economy, culture and security," Lee said. "Some mention untraditional areas such as climate change or international crimes, but it is uncertain whether this can have a desirable impact."

"The matured ties mean that we should seek a qualitative development in bilateral relations by exploring which fields the two country will seek synergy effects," the presidential official said.

namhw@koreatimes.co.kr