By Shannon Tiezzi
North Korea will always loom large in China-South Korea ties, but Beijing and Seoul are trying to move beyond that.
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in South Korea on Thursday for a two-day visit. Qiu Guohong, China’s ambassador to Seoul, set the bar high by declaring toKorea JoongAng Daily that Xi’s visit “will certainly become the most important milestone in the history of exchanges between the two countries.” Despite this, don’t look for progress on the elephant in the room: China’s support for North Korea.
Outside of China, media analysis highlighted that Xi was breaking tradition by visiting Seoul before Pyongyang. South Korea’s presidential office even noted this in its briefing on Xi’s visit (although North Korea is referred to obliquely, as “other countries”). Many wondered if this meant that China was beginning to back away from its traditional role as North Korea’s staunchest supporter. Chinese media, however, are trying to avoid the North Korea question altogether. In the grand tradition of Chinese diplomacy, which focuses on sidelining differences in favor of win-win cooperation, Beijing hopes to move beyond the question of North Korea in its ties to South Korea.
In preparation for Xi’s visit to Seoul, Chinese media and officials proclaimed that China-South Korea relations “are now at their best in history.” As evidence, Xinhua cites the close trade relationship (China is South Korea’s largest trading partner; South Korea is China’s third largest), the number of tourists and foreign students traveling between the two nations, and the increased number of high-level official exchanges.
Read the full story at The Diplomat