Looking to dash without any exit plan

KIM PIL-GYU
The author is a Washington correspondent of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Two years ago in January, an important incident occurred, although it didn’t get much attention because all eyes were on the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden. As soon as Biden’s oath was over, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement and sanctioned 28 officials of the Donald Trump administration. Sanctions included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell, and former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.

It was a retaliation for criticizing China’s massacres in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and stating that the Covid-19 virus originated from a lab in Wuhan. At the time, the Global Times called Pompeo a “doomsday clown,” saying he would be recorded as the worst-ever secretary of state. Not only Pompeo but also his family were blacklisted. They were banned from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. Companies or organizations related to them were also restricted from doing business in China.

While people thought they wouldn’t just visit China, it was not so simple. Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, expressed concerns that American companies may be reluctant to pick someone blacklisted by China as an advisers. Also, it may become difficult for them to find a certain job after leaving the government, he worried.

Not long ago, I met a former high-ranking official in the Trump administration. He said the concerns turned out to be true to some extent. Some of them were hired by conservative think tanks, but that was all.

As Wall Street cares about Chinese capital, it did not offer any jobs to them. They were even not invited for lectures. As a result, current foreign policy and security officials in the Biden administration want to avoid being blacklisted by China, according to the former official.

He claimed that’s the Biden administration presents hard-line measures against China while avoiding extreme rhetoric, and seeks top-level talks. This could be a purely Republican point of view. But it is something Korea must keep in mind, as the Korean government fails to talk with China after adhering to the Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance.

Last month in San Francisco, the leaders of the United States, China and Japan met separately on the sidelines of the APEC summit. The Korean presidential office leisurely said that it was a “strategic judgment” after failing to hold a Korea-China summit. Every country prepares to devise an exit strategy to brace for the end of all the chaos from the hegemony contest. I wonder if Korea is only dashing without an exit.