Time for Seoul-Beijing ties to get back on track

YOU SANG-CHUL
The author is the head of the China Institute of the JoongAng Ilbo and CEO of China Lab.

On April 18, China’s Global Times published a special feature on the results of its poll of Koreans. Some Korean media reported on the survey, but it did not draw much attention. Koreans may find the Chinese survey unreliable.

But there are certain points to consider, as it reflects China’s sentiments. What does China want to say? The headline speaks for itself: “More than 80% respondents hope China, South Korea to maintain friendly ties, cooperation.” The poll was conducted from April 6 to 10 on 1,045 people aged 18 to 70 in 17 locations across the country.

The survey was conducted before the April 10 parliamentary elections in Korea, in which the opposition Democratic Party had a landslide victory. Given the context, the article seems to have been published to ride on the growing voices calling for changes in Korean society. The article certainly reflected China’s desire to change the cold Korea-China relations.

It is hard to say what China wishes for is wrong. Let’s look at the answers from Koreans on another question in the same survey. When asked whether the Korea-China relationship is important to the future development of Korea, 76 percent of the respondents said it is.

Most Koreans think that the bilateral relationship itself is valuable, although there are times when they are not happy with China. In recent years, however, Korea-China relations have not met these expectations. On April 12 last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a surprise visit to an LG display plant in Guangdong Province. It was seen as a gesture of prioritizing China’s relations with Korea. But after a week, President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed his opposition to “changing the status quo by force” in the Taiwan Strait. Korea-China ties have cooled quickly.

Last May, Korean football player Son Jun-ho was detained in China over bribery charges. In June, Chinese Ambassador to Korea Xing Haiming made controversial remarks about “betting against China.” In November, at the APEC summit in San Francisco, the leaders of Korea and China did not have an official meeting and only exchanged short greetings.

After the cold spell, a breakthrough seemed to be made in March of this year. Son was released after a nearly one-year detention and returned home. But two weeks later, President Yoon boarded a Korean Coast Guard vessel to check illegal fishing by China’s crab fishing boats in the West Sea and ordered a strict crackdown on illegal fishing by Chinese fishing boats.

What goes around comes around, but the two countries are pushing back against one another. Under such circumstances, Chinese media called for friendship and cooperation between the two countries. Many things are changing after the general election in Korea. Both sides must end the vicious cycle in their relations.

Where should we start? Leaders of the two countries must meet. And it should begin with an effort by Korean and Chinese diplomatic authorities to properly deal with the emissary sent by the other country. If they bully each other, what future can we expect for Korea-China relations?