'Chip 4,' Thaad likely to be discussed by Korea, China's top envoys

Diplomacy

Published: 08 Aug. 2022, 17:54 Updated: 08 Aug. 2022, 19:21

'Chip 4,' Thaad likely to be discussed by Korea, China's top envoys

Foreign Minister Park Jin, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi shake hands after a photo session during the Asean Plus Three foreign ministerial meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Thursday. [YONHAP]

Foreign Minister Park Jin is in China through Wednesday to meet its top envoy, Wang Yi, possibly to discuss the controversial “Chip 4” alliance and the U.S.-led antimissile system in Korea.

Park was scheduled to meet with Wang in Qingdao, Shandong Province, on Tuesday, according to Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Ministry did not elaborate on the agenda of the talks beyond “Korea-China relations, the Korean Peninsula and regional and international issues,” but it’s expected that Wang will bring up issues related to U.S.-China rivalry, which he has a history of doing.

The last time Wang met with Park, which was on the sidelines of a G20 ministerial meeting in Indonesia on July 7, he was quoted by his ministry as discussing “rampant unilateral acts and deluging power politics and bullying,” probably alluding to the NATO summit in Madrid in June and U.S.-led initiatives in the region such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework established in May.

In his most recent trip abroad, to Dhaka on Sunday, Wang didn't ignore U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s highly controversial visit to Taiwan last Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Wang Yi emphasized that the United States' act seriously violated China's sovereignty, crudely interfered in China's internal affairs, and severely violated the basic norms governing international relations,” China’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday of Wang’s meeting with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka.

Park will be meeting with Wang as another issue to ruffle Beijing’s feathers, “Chip 4,” an alliance proposed by Washington to Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo in March, was just accepted by the Korean government.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently informed the United States that Korea will participate in the Chip 4 preliminary meeting,” said an official from the presidential office Sunday.

Beijing has been speaking out against the alliance for months.

“China opposes moves to forcibly push for industrial relocation and decoupling, undermine international trade rules and split the global market,” said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian in responding to a question from the press about the U.S. proposal to Korea on the semiconductor alliance on July 26.

“We hope that the Republic of Korea side will keep in mind its own long-term interests and market principles of fairness and openness, hold an objective and just position, and do more things that are conducive to China-Korea relations and the stability of global industrial and supply chains,” he said.

Another elephant in the room during the talks would be the Terminal High Altitude for Area Defense (Thaad), a U.S.-led antimissile system deployed to Korea in 2017.

Park, who has been an outspoken critic of the previous government's "strategic ambiguity" on issues related to U.S.-China rivalry, butted heads recently with Beijing on its demands on security, including on Thaad.

“It is difficult to accept the call from China that we should keep the Three No’s policy even though the matter is of direct concern to our national security and sovereignty,” said Park in a parliamentary hearing on July 25.

The so-called “Three No’s” policy refers to a pledge made by the Moon Jae-in administration in October 2017 not to make additional deployments of the Thaad anti-missile shield, participate in an American missile defense network or transform the U.S.-Korea-Japan alliance into a military alliance.

Chinese officials responded within the week with comments made during press conferences and also online.

“New officials cannot ignore old accounts,” wrote Liu Xiaoming, China's special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, on his Twitter account on July 27. “South Korea should continue to act prudently and seek fundamental solutions to major and sensitive issues involving the security of its neighbors.”

Beijing has strongly opposed the deployment of Thaad despite explanations from Seoul that the system was meant to counter missile threats from North Korea, calling it an American scheme to spy on China.

After the deployment in 2017, Beijing levied economic sanctions on Korean exports of entertainment, cancelled advertisements and movie contracts with Korean stars, and banned its own tour groups from going to Korea.

Members of the Yoon Suk-yeol government, including Yoon, have repeatedly called for "normalization" of the operation of Thaad.

The Thaad system, though installed in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang, in 2017, has yet to be used. The military base that hosts the system needs to get a green-light from the Korean government to start using it, which Korea has yet to give, citing environmental concerns.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]