At the invitation of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Doi-yeol began his visit to China, does this move mean that China-South Korea relations are about to improve, and what does the South Korean Foreign Minister have to ask for when he breaks the usual practice and comes to China?
During his visit to China, the ROK foreign minister sought two important things
Cho Die-yeol's predecessor, Park Jin, when he was South Korea's foreign minister, publicly stated that "in order, it should be the turn of the Chinese foreign minister to visit South Korea."
However, he was later replaced due to personnel transfers, and Cho learned his lesson after taking office.
In February this year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi invited Zhao Duilie to visit China, but at that time, Zhao Duilie did not immediately agree to China's invitation on the phone on the grounds of "coordinating with China through diplomatic channels".
Now, Zhao Duilie has taken the initiative to break the "convention" to visit China, and his gesture of goodwill is very obvious.
At the same time, this is the first official visit to Beijing by a South Korean foreign minister in six and a half years.
[South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Doi-yeol]
It shows that Zhao Duilie's visit to China has important things to ask for.
With the China-Japan-South Korea Foreign Ministers' Summit coming up on May 26 in South Korea, where the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea will meet, this may be South Korea's last chance for itself.
Before his visit to China, Cho revealed that the focus of his visit to China was on the development direction of South Korea-China relations and supply chain cooperation.
Before the special plane took off, Cho also met with South Korean enterprises in China to discuss how to better support South Korean enterprises, and convened a meeting of consul generals in China to encourage consulates general to actively promote exchanges and cooperation with local cities in China and contribute to the promotion of South Korea-China relations.
To put it bluntly, Zhao Duilie wanted to seek China for two major matters during his visit to China, one was to ease Sino-ROK relations, and the other was to not lose economic and trade cooperation with China.
Yin Xiyue has had enough of the bitterness of making enemies with China
South Korea has today, and it can be said that it is all "self-inflicted".
China and South Korea are neighbors that cannot be moved, and there are no irreconcilable contradictions between China and South Korea.
[South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol]
However, since Yoon Suk-yeol took office, "pro-US and flattering Japan" has become South Korea's foreign policy, and in order to follow the United States and Japan, Yoon Suk-yeol has repeatedly pointed fingers at China's internal affairs on issues related to the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
In addition, in order to strengthen cooperation with the United States and Japan, South Korea is constantly suppressing China economically.
Yoon Suk-yeol's various actions have led to an unprecedented crisis in Sino-South Korean relations, and China and South Korea have also gone further and further diplomatically and economically.
The evil consequences of alienating China have also been vividly experienced by Yoon Suk-yeol in the past two years.
Just last month, in the midterm elections of the National Assembly, the Democratic Party of Korea, the largest opposition party in South Korea, won a landslide victory in the parliamentary election with more than half of the seats. Top members of South Korea's ruling party resigned en masse and suffered a crushing defeat.
Yoon Suk-yeol's fiasco has a great deal to do with the bad relations between South Korea and China.
China used to be the largest source of South Korea's trade surplus, but now in China's inland market, Korean products face major competition from domestic and Japanese-made products. The survey found that South Korean products are not as advantageous as China in terms of pricing, and they are inferior to Japan in terms of quality.
【China-Korea Trade Port】
It can be seen that in terms of trade cooperation between China and South Korea, there is a continuous downward trend, which undoubtedly brings a big blow to South Korea's economy. Last year, China also became South Korea's largest source of trade deficit in January.
In addition, South Korea is also clamoring for "getting rid of China's dependence" in the economic field, only to find that the more South Korea encircles China economically, the greater the losses South Korea will suffer.
Therefore, Yoon Suk-yeol hopes that before the summit of the heads of state of China, Japan and South Korea, he can seize the last opportunity to repair China-South Korea relations.
It is difficult to make a big improvement in Sino-ROK relations on paper
However, it is not so much Yoon Suk-yeol who hopes that South Korean public opinion is more vocal.
It is an indisputable fact that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has focused its diplomatic efforts on "strengthening the ROK-U.S. alliance" and "ROK-U.S.-Japan triangular cooperation," and its diplomatic efforts toward china are weak.
A few days ago, Yoon Suk-yeol said at a press conference that South Korea's foreign policy is still a strong alliance between South Korea and the United States. This means that for the next three years, Yoon Suk-yeol will continue to pursue his previous foreign policy.
[Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi]
South Korean media also said that keeping pace with the United States and Japan, South Korea is not being treated well, China is improving relations with European countries, Australia and the United States, and hopes that the Yoon Suk-yeol government can find a diplomatic balance.
As for South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Doi-yeol's visit to China, it can only save the "ice" period of Sino-South Korean relations, and as for whether the two sides can carry out more cooperation and China-South Korea relations are warming up, South Korea needs to show more controversy and adjust its foreign policy in action.
In short, China has long made it clear that China does not resist repairing relations with South Korea, that the two countries are neighbors that cannot be moved, and that there is no conflict of interest.
However, improving relations between the two countries cannot be achieved through visits and rhetoric, and the "goal" that the ROK wants to achieve is based on the friendly relations between the two countries.
Therefore, in the final analysis, improving relations with China will depend on the general direction of Yoon Suk-yeol's foreign policy toward China in the coming years.