[Meanwhile] Still oblivious to China’s turnaround
YOU SANG-CHULThe author is head of the China Institute of the JoongAng Ilbo and the CEO of China Lab.
Whenever North Korea fires a missile, I wonder, “Why not buy rice with that money?” The hunger-stricken country is short of 1.21 million tons of food, including corn, this year. It costs about 550 billion won ($421 million). This year, the North fired 63 missiles, which cost up to 1 trillion won. Money is being thrown into the air.
Then I thought there must be someone who secretly takes care of the country. I was not wrong. China has been annually providing its neighbor with food, including 800,000 tons in 2020.
Behind the North’s unusually frequent missile provocations this year is China’s changed policy on the Korean Peninsula. Since the normalization of its diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, China has stuck with three principles on the Korean Peninsula: peace and stability on the peninsula, denuclearization, and resolution of the conflict through inter-Korean dialogue and negotiation. But a change in the principles was discovered at a recent international academic conference on the Ukraine war and the rest of the world, hosted by the Korean Association for Eurasian Studies.
Professor Shi Yinhong of Renmin University in China disclosed the change. Shi, an expert on U.S.-China relations, said that China’s Korean Peninsula policy has significantly changed since the China-U.S. high-level meeting in Anchorage in March 2021. At the time, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi had a heated argument.
Prof. Shi said, “Beijing has decided to build a team to counter Washington’s attempt to create a team targeting China. After China sent a strong message to North Korea, Russia and Iran, denuclearization has disappeared from the agenda of the high-level Chinese officials. For China, friendship with North Korea is more important than denuclearization.” The professor said he was surprised how South Korea still does not know China’s Korea policy.
I recently discovered that China did not mention President Yoon Suk-yeol’s request for a constructive role with regard to the North’s nuclear and missiles provocations in their first summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November. Instead, Xi made remarks suggestive of his demand that South Korea improve its relations with North Korea first. On the way to rally support from the rest of the world in its contest with America, China started siding with North Korea.
Under this circumstance, asking China to play any role in denuclearization is meaningless. China’s role is important, but we should not fantasize. If China’s Korean Peninsula policy has changed, Korea’s China policy also must change.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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