They believe doing so can bring South Korea economic growth, national security, and last but not least, China's respect. Some Koreans think that South Korea should actively seek to decouple from China and confront it to express its loyalty to the US and the West. Not only has South Korea made up a cause of its own illness, but it has also written itself an unhelpful prescription. However, such a confrontation is in the interests of neither sides, and the negative impact on Seoul can be even greater. But today South Korea seems to be taking the initiative to make confrontation with China a major topic. There are no fundamental conflicts of interest between China and South Korea.

The conflicts result from South Korea becoming a pawn of the US to suppress China. China, which takes countermeasures against South Korea, clearly shouldn't be blamed. In recent years, conflicts between Beijing and Seoul have arisen over the THAAD issue. There are many problems with this logic, the most fundamental one being the reversal of cause and effect. They confidently believe that China will not fight a duel with South Korea if the latter is in these multilateral frameworks, because other countries will join forces to help South Korea if China does so. These people then deduce that South Korea needs to participate more actively in the Western-led multilateral framework to deal with China. If South Korea did so, China would view it in a new light and pay more attention to it.

Some in the South Korean government argue that China has already 'retaliated' against South Korea over the THAAD issue because the latter did not show enough solidarity with Western countries like the US and Japan. Many South Korean media outlets and experts worry that their country will sooner or later face 'retaliation' from China because of such moves.īut it seems the Yoon administration has a different logic to convince itself. This includes strengthening trilateral cooperation among the US, South Korea and Japan, attending the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, and attending the NATO summit. OPINION / COLUMNISTS South Korea should not blindly follow the US and the West in making its China policy By Zhan Debin Published: 03:55 PMĬhina South Korea File photo:CGTNSince taking office, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has been participating in multilateral mechanisms or events that more or less took China as the target.

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