In the past two days, South Korea's president-elect Yoon Seok-yue has met with the Chinese ambassador to South Korea and revealed a detail that sets the tone for Sino-South Korean relations.
Yin Xiyue could only take office on May 10, but now he has begun to work. As can be seen, he has several directions in diplomacy. First of all, for South Korea, the U.S. relationship is the most important, so they want to rebuild the U.S.-South Korea relationship. Some time ago, the relationship between Japan and South Korea was not very good, so Yin Xiyue also said that he would improve Japan-South Korea relations.
And the most important thing for our Chinese friends, how will China-ROK relations go? Yin Xiyue gave a tone, that is, to build Sino-South Korean relations on the basis of mutual respect.
It can be seen that when Yin Xiyue met with Mr. Xing Haiming, the Chinese ambassador to the Republic of Korea, the atmosphere of the meeting was not as tough and cold as he had been in the whole campaign process, and even had some sword-rattling implications. After all, when he first ran, Yoon Seok-yue said something like this: If South Korea wants to be a big country, it must be bold with China. He also specifically mentioned that Moon Jae-in's attitude toward China after the THAAD incident was too tolerant, even a little low.
At the time, Yoon Seok-wook criticized Moon's government, and then turned sharply, saying that he would not deploy more THAAD if he was elected like Moon Jae-in. If you think about it, at that time, I felt that I had to be tough on China. Because South Korea has a goal, that is, it does not want to be a regional country anymore, but to become a global hub country.
In this case, Yin Xiyue felt that he had to become tougher. However, after he met with the Chinese ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Mr. Xing Haiming, he had a completely different atmosphere. He told Ambassador Xing Haiming that the two of us were old acquaintances, so we felt very cordial. In addition, he also stressed that China is South Korea's largest trading partner, and South Korea is China's third largest trading partner, so the relationship between the two sides is actually very close.
To tell the truth, South Korea's president has indeed changed a lot, whether it is Park Geun-hye, Moon Jae-in, or the earlier Roh Moo-hyun, etc., in the case of China, in fact, it is still more cautious, because neighbors can not move away.
When meeting with the Chinese ambassador, Yin Xiyue also emphasized a detail, which is actually meaningful. He told our ambassador that his mobile phone still contains precious images from the time when China and South Korea established diplomatic relations in 1992.
This year coincides with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea, and when China and South Korea established diplomatic relations, the president of South Korea at the time was Roh Tae-woo, and his party was the predecessor of the Nationalist Forces Party, where Yoon Seok-yue is now located. That is to say, from a partisan point of view, the founder of the close relationship between China and South Korea and the current Yin Xiyue, that is a party, the same origin.
In the words of our common people, in fact, when this is said, it is a bit of a cliché. I also hope that the future Sino-ROK relations can continue to develop on such a softer, really mutually respectful tone.
We know that at present, in South Korea, the attitude of opposition and rejection of China is quite clear. First, this depends on the international environment, and the United States is now tough on China, ranking China as the biggest strategic opponent, which makes South Korea, which regards the US-ROK alliance as a blood alliance, of course, cannot fail to consider this.
The second point is that now China's economy is rapidly improving, including its international status is getting higher and higher, which makes South Korea, which was once economically ahead of China, which was also the four Asian tigers, some people are unhappy in their hearts, and the younger generation of South Korea, who are now beginning to care about politics, is also a basic disk of Yin Xiyue voters, and their attitude towards China is not friendly.
Both of the above will contain Yin Xiyue's attitude towards China. However, in general, because China is indeed very large, and because of the good relations between China and South Korea, there is a close relationship between South Korea's economic development and people's lives. Therefore, I believe that In the process of governing, Yin Xiyue will not let Sino-South Korean relations rise and fall.
And now, in the South Korean Parliament, there are still two-thirds of the members, in fact, not Yoon Seok-wook's National Power Party, but the current Moon Jae-in government's ruling party, these people can also contain Yoon Seok-yue's China policy.
Therefore, I believe that in the future sino-ROK relations, everyone respects each other and understands each other, but they also abide by their own principles. For example, as far as China is concerned, if South Korea really wants to meddle in our Taiwan Strait affairs, this is absolutely not allowed.