Learning China diplomacy from Australia
Published: 29 Nov. 2023, 20:13
Chung Jae-hong
The author is an international, diplomatic, and security news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, in hosting a meeting for his counterparts from China and Japan, announced last Sunday that the two countries will work toward holding a trilateral summit “in the near future.” His statement means that Seoul’s effort to arrange a summit among the three key East Asian countries within the year failed.
The latest trilateral foreign ministerial gathering in Busan also failed to bring about the same stern tone on North Korea compared with the last meeting four years ago.
According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Park and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa raised the North Korean issue in their respective address before the meeting, whereas no mention came from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The three-way rhetoric on North Korea this time was reserved, merely agreeing to keep up communication instead of vowing to closely cooperate toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as was vowed four years ago. Wang merely recited a restraint by concerned countries. Beijing-controlled The Global Times cited experts to demand “sincerity” from Seoul and Tokyo for their strides in the three-way relationship by respecting Beijing’s core interests with Taiwan and the territories around the Chinese sea.
Seoul was cold-shouldered by Beijing during the recent conference of leaders of the Pacific Economic Cooperation in San Francisco. Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with his U.S. host Joe Biden for four hours and had separate talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, while sparing just three minutes to merely exchange greetings with Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The conservative government under President Yoon has decisively worked toward strengthening the three-way alliance with the United States and Japan and reinforcing the country’s identity on the free democracy front. After a summit with leaders of the United States and Japan in Camp David in August, Korea joined a strongly-worded statement decisively addressing China to stop “any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific.”
Diplomatic experts see Beijing distancing itself from Seoul to contain its closeness with Washington and Tokyo. China has a habit of domineering over South Korea. When South Korea installed the U.S.-led antimissile system Thaad in 2016, China slammed a ban on Korean contents and sales of group tours to South Korea. Chinese tourist groups were able to return to Korea only after Beijing lifted all travel bans in August, after it discarded the Zero-Covid policy.
Seoul proved to be easily tamed. Because the former Moon Jae-in administration worked too hard to win favor with China, South Korea fell apart with its traditional allies: the United States and Japan. The experience has taught Beijing to play hard with Seoul.
Canberra behaved the opposite toward China’s belligerence, even while Australia depends heavily on the country for trade. China had punished Australia for Canberra’s demand for international inquiry into the origin of Covid-19 in 2020 by restricting imports of Australian meat, wine and coal. The share of China in Australia’s exports plunged to 29.5 percent in 2022 versus 40.5 percent in 2020. China had to endure one of its coldest winters in 2020 due to the ban on coal imports from Australia. Australia in September 2021 was invited into the Aukus, a security partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom mostly directed towards containing China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific. After keeping a consistent policy toward Beijing, Canberra under more China-friendly Prime Minister Anthony Albanese since May last year took steps to normalize their ties. Beijing willingly complied. Xi argued that “stable ties” between China and Australia served each other’s interests after he recently held talks with Albanese who made the first visit to China as Australian leader since 2016.
Beijing wants to pull Seoul away from Washington, while the United States wishes to draw South Korea closer through stronger bilateral ties and a three-way alliance with Japan to confront Beijing.
South Korea relies on its alliance with the United States due to the North Korean threat, but it cannot neglect its economic relationship with China. If Seoul is forced to make a choice between the two under more heat in their hegemony contest, it inevitably would have to stand by the United States, as the threat from Pyongyang is a matter of life and death. The South is sustained by free democracy and an economy aligned to global order. Its future interests also lie with free democracy.
As Australia’s episode suggests, it would be best for South Korea to respond boldly, guided by national interests against the pressure from Beijing. China is engrossed with multiple whammies in the economy, with youth unemployment flying over 20 percent, its colossal real estate market in a shaky slump and fiscal conditions of provincial governments worsening. Bilateral relationships will normalize in time when South Korea persistently puts free democracy principles first while trying to mend ties with China with more confidence.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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