At the invitation of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Doi-yeol visited China on May 13 and 14.
However, since Yoon Suk-yeol came to power, South Korea has pursued a one-sided foreign policy toward the United States, focusing only on maintaining the "trilateral alliance between the United States, Japan, and South Korea," thus despising diplomatic exchanges with China.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Doe-yeol
In addition, Yoon Suk-yeol himself has repeatedly made irresponsible remarks on the Taiwan issue, which has added many unnecessary obstacles to China-South Korea relations, which in turn has also affected the economic and trade exchanges between the two countries. For example, South Korea has actively or passively joined the ranks of the United States' suppression of China's science and technology, which has actually caused damage to the country's own interests.
South Korea's semiconductor industry, including Samsung and SK hynix, has been working in the Chinese market for many years, and Chinese customers are one of the important buyers of Korean semiconductor products.
It is precisely because of the pressure from South Korean companies that the Yoon Suk-yeol government has to re-examine its relations with China, and in addition, Yoon's National Power Party failed to occupy a majority in the parliamentary elections, and its hardline policy towards China has been questioned by the opposition parties.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol
Cho has repeatedly stressed the "need for Seoul to maintain stable relations with Beijing" and believes that deepening cooperation with China will stimulate South Korea's economic potential, and the foreign ministers of China and South Korea also held a phone call earlier this year.
At that time, Zhao Duilie told Foreign Minister Wang Yi that the ROK government attaches great importance to developing relations with China, and has not changed its stance of adhering to "one China" on the Taiwan issue, and hopes to continue to carry out close high-level exchanges with China and continue to accumulate achievements in the economic, people-to-people and cultural fields.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi also responded positively to the ROK, emphasizing that "distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors", saying that the ROK and China are not only important close neighbors, but also close cooperative partners, and that China's policy towards the ROK has maintained continuity and stability, and hopes that the ROK can actively pursue a friendly policy towards China.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
China and South Korea have made new progress at the diplomatic level, and China and Japan have also launched new exchanges, and it is still relatively rare to have contacts at the military level. According to the Global Times on May 13, a delegation of 20 Chinese military officers will visit Japan to visit the Japanese Ministry of Defense and the aviation base of the Self-Defense Forces.
In July last year, Japan's Self-Defense Forces also sent a similar delegation to China to carry out exchange activities, and now China's return visit to Japan is also a normal diplomatic arrangement. However, in view of some recent minor moves between the United States and Japan, it is both reasonable and unexpected for China to hold consultations with Japan at the military and diplomatic level.
From a strategic point of view, the United States has been actively deploying in China's periphery in recent years, vainly trying to block China's development with an "island chain", while Japan and South Korea are important representatives of the Asia-Pacific allies of the United States, not only highly synchronized with the United States at the political and diplomatic levels, but also deeply bound to the United States at the military level.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden
Against this backdrop, it is not easy to drive a wedge between the United States and Japan, or even South Korea and Japan, but this does not mean that there is no chance at all. In fact, whether it is Japan or South Korea, the top priority is development, especially the recent depreciation of the yen, which has made it clear to the outside world that the dollar is an important tool for the United States to maintain hegemony and harvest the economies of other countries, even if it is an ally.
To put it bluntly, there is no future for acting as a pawn and thug of the United States, and this is why South Korea has recently actively mobilized China, Japan, and South Korea to convene a high-level meeting is because public opinion from all walks of life in South Korea is calling on the government to properly handle relations with China as soon as possible.
Although it is difficult for bilateral relations to return to the same state in the short term, expanding dialogue between the two sides and keeping communication channels open can to a certain extent actively manage differences and avoid miscalculations.
China-Japan-South Korea relations
Of course, whether it is China-Japan or China-South Korea relations, in the final analysis, they are all affected by China-US relations, so it is particularly important to ensure that the surrounding situation remains stable and avoid US interference in regional affairs.