Sino-US rivalry intensifies in Global South, Korea

By Kim Sang-woo

The Chinese government's criticism of South Korea reached its peak on June 8 when Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming said that “those who bet on China's loss will surely regret their decision in the future.” This statement that was made during a meeting with Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, sparked a diplomatic firestorm and public outrage.

President Yoon Suk Yeol directly criticized Ambassador Xing for pursuing political incitement rather than trying to build bridges between the two countries. The ruling People Power Party called on the government to declare the Chinese ambassador persona non grata.

On June 18, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a visit to Beijing in an effort to establish “guardrails” on the intensifying U.S.-China rivalry. His meetings, however, did not result in a breakthrough in relations, and the two sides do not yet appear to have established a common understanding of how to manage the competition.

Daniel Kritenbrink, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, visited Seoul on June 21 to explain Blinken's two-day meetings in Beijing. He told Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Young-sam that the U.S. sought to maintain high-level communication channels with China to prevent any miscalculation from leading to an unwanted conflict.

President Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader in decades, has pushed to expand Beijing's role on the world stage with an increasingly assertive foreign policy that has fueled tensions with many of its neighbors and the West.

In recent years, the Biden administration has stepped up efforts to unite allies and like-minded partners to counter China's rising influence in the Indo-Pacific. The trilateral ties between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are further strengthened by security concerns about North Korean missile threats. They have also issued joint statements against tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing could try to drive a wedge in South Korea-U.S. relations by punishing Seoul for moving closer to Washington. China's economic retaliation against the 2017 decision to allow the U.S. to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in South Korea is still clearly remembered. South Koreans are also disappointed at the U.S. making no effort to defend South Korea against China's coercion.

Moreover, to compete effectively with China, Washington must work with its allies and partners to take the concerns of Global South countries seriously, respond sincerely to their development needs and reinvigorate the multilateral system as a source of legitimacy for global leadership.

The U.S. and its allies and partners emphasize preserving the rules-based international order as if the system is working well. But the inconvenient truth is that the current international order is stagnant, with world bodies like the United Nations and the World Trade Organization incapable of reforming itself to meet the needs and challenges of the 21st century.

Now, China proclaims itself as the champion of the Global South. Speaking at last month's Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu made a call for “fairness and justice” in world governance.

Neighboring countries that have been bullied or coerced by China, scoff at its hypocrisy. Yet from Beijing's perspective, not only are its grievances legitimate, given its concerns over U.S. efforts to thwart China's rise, but such grievances may resonate in the Global South.

While the West, in terms of public opinion and policy toward China, has become negative and even hostile, Beijing is confident about finding many like-minded partners in the Global South to form coalitions to reshape the international system in accordance with its own values and interests. China has invested enormously in South-South cooperation not only in trade, investment and infrastructure financing but also in development aid, knowledge exchange and multilateral institution building.

Just as economic and technological decoupling and estrangement between China and the West are gaining ground, China is leveraging its economic power to initiate its own coupling with the Global South in economic, geopolitical, institutional and normative terms.

To many in the developing world, globalization has only served to perpetuate inequalities between the Global North and the Global South. China's South-South cooperation exploits these historical and contemporary grievances toward a “rest versus West” binary, constructing a simplistic narrative between the aggrieved majority and the privileged few led by the U.S. and Western countries. This creates the image that the Chinese approach to global governance is inclusive and legitimate while the Western approach is exclusive and non-representative.

Although China now attempts to set itself apart from the West and presents its success as the result of its own efforts, the truth is that China is probably the largest beneficiary of globalization, not its victim. By various measures of power and influence, including technology, finance and position in global governance, China is more a part of the Global North rather than the Global South.

Beijing's economic engagement with the developing world follows the tradition of advanced capitalist economies before it, as seen in its acquiring of natural resources, as well as, mercantile and exploitative practices that create a subservient economic relationship between China and Global South countries.

In regard to a number of potential reforms of global governance to make the world more “just and fair,” such as the expansion of the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, China has been more of an obstacle than an enabler.

Perhaps, South Korea can contribute to rallying the Global South countries in joining the “rules-based” international order. South Korea, once a member of the Global South, can share its own experiences, and as the “rags to riches” and “autocracy to democracy” success story, can provide the necessary support to Global South countries and complement South Korea's “global pivotal state” strategy.

Kim Sang-woo (swkim54@hotmail.com), a former lawmaker, is chairman of the East Asia Cultural Project and a member of the board of directors at the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation.