Put Korea-China relations back on track

Korea-China relations are still shaking after they were frozen last year. Since President Yoon Suk Yeol’s first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2022 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, high-level contacts between the two governments have nearly stopped. Exploiting diplomacy for domestic politics under such circumstances only worsens the bilateral ties.

The deterioration of their relations basically stems from the heated strategic competition between the United States and China. It directly affected the Korea-China relations ahead of the Korea-U.S. summit last April. Following President Yoon’s “opposition to changing the status quo in China-Taiwan relations by force,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry responded immediately. After China explicitly affirmed a determination to not allow other countries to step in Chinese affairs, Seoul’ relations with Beijing turned icy quickly.

The remarks by China’s ambassador to Korea, Xing Haiming, last June worsened the situation. In a meeting with Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung, the ambassador stressed that betting on America’ victory against China is a wrong choice. After our Foreign Ministry summoned Xing over his volatile comment, the two countries’ relations turned icier than before.

The two sides had a chance to ease the tension. After the U.S. and Chinese leaders had a summit on the occasion of the APEC Summit in San Francisco last November to mend their ties, Korea and China had an opportunity to improve their relations. The meeting of foreign ministers of Korea, China and Japan, held shortly after the U.S.-China summit, was attended by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who discussed with his counterparts ways to resume a tripartite summit soon. But the meeting ended with no progress.

The DP leader’s naïve comment under such circumstances fueled controversy. “We don’t have to provoke China. We can just say, ‘Thank you.’ We have nothing to do with China and Taiwan’s domestic affairs,” he said. China’s state mouthpieces portrayed it as a “warning from the opposition leader against the president.” To make matters worse, a staffer to Korea’s ambassador to China filed a complaint with the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, accusing the ambassador, the president’s high school friend, of abusing his power over the embassy staff. The ministry is looking into the case, but it is a deplorable development.

We are dumbfounded that the embassy staff are now busy recording their boss’s frequent rough rhetoric to collect evidence of power abuse. The ministry must find the truth behind the accusation and make efforts to put the estranged relationship back on track as soon as possible.