According to a number of media reports, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Doi-yeol was invited to visit China, which was also interpreted by the outside world as a signal of cooperation between South Korea and China. During his visit to China, Cho said that he hoped that the visit would be an important step forward in ROK-China relations, and that the ROK Government attaches great importance to its relations with China.
Interestingly, the South Korean media reported in the same direction that there is a strong desire to strengthen cooperation between the two countries, and why the South Korean foreign minister's visit to China has attracted so much attention has to be comprehensively analyzed from the following aspects.
One is pressure from North Korea. Recently, some media reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected a military industrial complex and test-fired a new sniper rifle. At present, the situation on the Korean Peninsula continues to deteriorate, and the North Korean side has even dissolved the 75-year-old Central Committee of the Fatherland Front, and reaffirmed the new policy toward South Korea proposed by Kim Jong-un since December last year, that is, South Korea is not the object of reconciliation and reunification, but "the eternal main enemy", so the Fatherland Front, as a national united front organization, is no longer "necessary to exist." In other words, the relations between the two Koreas have fallen to a historical freezing point, and the Yoon Suk-yeol government, which blindly follows the United States, is currently in an embarrassing state of "riding a tiger," and its eagerness to seek help from China to mediate the situation on the Korean Peninsula has also become one of the important topics of Cho Duiyeol's visit to China.
Since Yoon Suk-yeol came to power, it can be said that he has completely overturned the active China policy of his predecessor Moon Jae-in, and has repeatedly provoked China on issues of principle and red lines such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. But with the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Blinken to China, the tension between China and the United States has eased slightly. The answer is yes, so it really fulfills the diplomatic truth that "there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests".
The second is economic issues. As mentioned above, Zhao Duilie expressed a strong willingness to cooperate during his visit to China, so how "strong" is it? According to relevant media reports, Zhao Duilie mentioned the word "cooperation" seven times in his speech of about 1,400 words, which is exactly what China wants to see. "The world is big enough to accommodate many countries." In the context of economic globalization, blindly decoupling and engaging in confrontation will do all kinds of harm but no benefit, and the same is true for China, South Korea, and China and the United States. During the two-day trip, Cho will also have a discussion with representatives of Korean companies in China, which also represents the urgency of all circles in South Korea to improve relations with China. According to public information, the trade volume between the two countries exceeded 310 billion US dollars last year. As far as China's current development situation is concerned, if South Korea is separated from the Chinese market, it will inevitably cause irreparable huge losses to its own economy.
The third is geopolitics and East Asian regional economic integration. As mentioned in the first point, South Korea has been at the forefront of the Western world's confrontation with China and Russia since World War II and the Korean War, and the South Korean Foreign Minister's urgent willingness to visit China also reflects the importance that South Korea attaches to North Korea and the situation on the peninsula. After former South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office, he began to actively promote South Korea's "autonomy" in international affairs, reduce its military dependence on the United States, and seek a greater voice in the international arena.
He has repeatedly stated that he wants to elevate the status of South Korea and strive to take back the wartime military command of his own army, and this position has even caused a certain rift in South Korea-US relations. Because South Korea is saving itself! As a South Korean government whose basic sovereignty has been emasculated, "standing up" is the most urgent need, and the trilateral meeting of China, Japan and South Korea gave South Korea such an opportunity, and it can be said that Cho Tei-yeol came with such a major task to "test the waters" to see what China's attitude is, and whether it can coordinate the restoration of the shelving status since 2019.
The economic growth of the East Asian region is not only the wish of China, but also the wish of Japan and South Korea, and the same as the military aspect, the economic aspect of Japan and South Korea has been hijacked by the United States, and it can be said that "Japan and South Korea have been bitter for a long time." If you say that they want to resist or not, the answer is of course yes. Whether the semiconductor ecosystem that South Korea has spent a lot of money to build can be maintained, and whether it can carry out more and larger cooperation and exchanges in the field of chips, the relationship between China, Japan and South Korea has become the top priority.
"There is no fundamental conflict of interest between China and South Korea", Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi gave Zhao Duilie a "reassurance" in 12 words, and it can even be said that China and South Korea have expressed goodwill signals to each other, but all this is based on a crucial foundation, that is, South Korea needs to correct its wrong line and direction, no longer brainlessly follow the United States on sensitive issues, and no longer touch the red lines of principles such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, then China will definitely be able to promote the stability of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the denuclearization of the peninsula. China and South Korea have made more and more valuable efforts in the economic field.