Korean politics fails to read the future from history

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Korean politics fails to read the future from history

Published: 29 Oct. 2025, 00:01

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Yeom Jae-ho

The author is the president of Taejae University.

In 1405, Chinese Adm. Zheng He set sail across the Indian Ocean under the order of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty — nearly 90 years before Columbus embarked on his voyage to the New World in 1492. On his first expedition, Zheng reached India and Vietnam, and over the next 30 years he led seven grand voyages that extended as far as modern-day Kenya and Mozambique on Africa’s eastern coast.

Zheng’s fleet dwarfed that of Columbus. His armada consisted of 27,000 sailors on 62 ships, including massive vessels measuring over 130 meters long (426.5 feet) and weighing 8,000 tons. Columbus, by contrast, sailed with 88 crew members and three small ships weighing 250 tons.

From left in the front row, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev wave with other leaders during a group photo session at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Oct. 18, 2023. [AP/YONHAP]

At the time, China was the birthplace of three world-changing inventions: paper, gunpowder and the compass. Paper, invented around the first century, spread knowledge. Gunpowder, created in the 9th century through alchemical experimentation, transformed warfare. The magnetic compass, introduced in the 11th century, advanced navigation. These innovations made China an unrivaled power; during the Ming and Qing dynasties, its economy accounted for nearly 30 percent of global GDP, and its population made up one-third of the world.

Nevertheless, the empire declined because shortsighted domestic politics triumphed over vision. China’s rulers suppressed maritime trade and technological innovation, prioritizing internal control over global exploration.

This photo taken on Aug. 18, 2022 shows a high-speed electric passenger train, customized for the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, being loaded onto a vessel in Qingdao Port in east China's Shandong province. A set of passenger trains and an inspection train will be transported to Indonesia, marking important progress in the construction of the railway, a landmark project under the Belt and Road Initiative. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Before his passing, the late scholar Lee O-young told me in conversation that history’s great shifts hinge on whether a civilization embraces the sea or clings to the continent. After Emperor Yongle, China deemed maritime expeditions wasteful and turned inward, burning Zheng He’s navigation records and banning further voyages. The emperor moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and launched the Grand Canal project, which connected the two cities — actions that symbolized the empire’s turn toward continental consolidation. As Professor Cho Young-hun’s book “The Age of the Grand Canal: 1415-1784” (2021) explains, China’s hesitation to venture outward sealed its fate.

When China abandoned the ocean and pursued isolationist domestic politics, it lost its technological edge. Obsessed with court politics, its leaders failed to see the coming transformations of the Industrial Revolution. By the 19th century, the Qing Empire was humiliated by Britain in the Opium Wars (1839-1842) and by Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), sinking what was once the world’s greatest civilization.

Today, Beijing is once again turning toward the sea. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, China is transforming itself from a continental to a maritime power. It is building military outposts in the South China Sea, constructing aircraft carriers like the Shandong and expanding port infrastructure across the Indian Ocean, Africa and the Middle East. President Xi Jinping has placed maritime wind power, shipping and deep-sea resource development at the core of his national strategy. As China’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence (AI) shows, the country's advances in AI and robotics are accelerating rapidly.

Russia, another continental power, is also seeking access to the sea. Every September, President Vladimir Putin hosts the Eastern Economic Forum on Russky Island in Vladivostok to promote the development of Pacific and Arctic trade routes. As melting Arctic ice opens new sea lanes, the route from Rotterdam to Asia could shrink from 22,000 kilometers (13,670 miles) to about 12,000. By allowing Russia to bypass Somali piracy and save time and energy, the Arctic route could become its key 21st-century resource alongside Siberian energy. Putin is already building new port cities across Siberia to prepare for that future.

While these authoritarian continental powers reinvent themselves as maritime states, Korea remains mired in its old political battles. The 21st century is witnessing a massive upheaval — neoliberalism is fading, and AI-driven civilization is emerging — yet Korean politics remains trapped in the ideological wars of the 20th century. Industrialization-era and democratization-era forces still wage the same partisan conflicts.

What is worse, the so-called progressive camp has regressed into a reactionary bloc fixated on defending old social ideologies and vested interests. True progressivism should mean foresight: Reading, preparing for and moving toward the future. But few Korean political leaders are developing new social systems or ideologies to navigate the AI era and shifting geopolitical realities.

In this photo released by the Roscongress Foundation, Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he speaks at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia on Sept. 5. [AP/YONHAP]

When politics becomes consumed by domestic rivalries, leaders lose the ability to perceive the tides of civilization and geography. If Korea’s political class continues to ignore the structural transformation required for the new century, the nation’s ascent — its “Korea Peak” — will soon falter. Politicians who rely only on shallow propaganda to satisfy their base will ultimately be remembered by history as failures.

Both the ruling and opposition parties must abandon empty confrontation and compete instead to design the social systems that will sustain Korea’s future. Political leaders would do well to study why the once mighty Ming and Qing empires collapsed — and ensure that Korea does not repeat their mistakes.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.