China Managed to Alienate South Koreans Even More

By convention, banquets and confabs at an ambassador’s residence are meant to be snug and private. All the more so in Seongbuk, a leafy, affluent neighborhood on the northeastern corner of Seoul, where China’s ambassador to South Korea, Xing Haiming, lives. But that wasn’t the case on June 8, when Lee Jae-myung, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, sauntered into Xing’s pine-lined garden for a chat over Peking duck.

For a start, Lee was accompanied by a camera crew, and the event was live-streamed on both Lee’s and his party’s YouTube page – hardly anyone’s definition of private. Second, after a few pleasantries were exchanged, Xing produced a stiff manuscript to read to Lee – again, quite unlike the ease and informality that typically marks diplomatic chatter at an ambassadorial residence. Xing harangued Lee for 15 minutes on what China found distasteful in South Korea’s foreign policy – the exchange was clearly not one between two equal dignitaries. Lee stayed mute the whole time.

According to Xing, China was not to blame for the two countries’ deteriorating bilateral relationship. He didn’t name the culprit but everyone understood that he meant to blame Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s pro-Washington president. Lately, Beijing was enraged by Yoon’s description of the South Korea-U.S. bond as “an alliance of universal values” and his gibe at China’s stance on Taiwan as “attempts to change the status quo by force.” Xing added that South Korea should “respect our core interests.” In the end, his message was menacing: “Those who bet on China’s defeat will regret it.”

The Yoon administration and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) are now livid. The PPP leader, Kim Gi-hyeon, accused Xing of having interfered in South Korea’s domestic affairs and breached diplomatic courtesy. There was even talk within the PPP of expelling Xing, although the government mooted it lest things spiraled out of control. During a cabinet meeting on June 13, Yoon bridled at Xing’s lack of mutual respect, which he claimed obstructed the path to rapprochement. “Our people are offended,” he added.

Indeed, one poll revealed that 74 percent of South Koreans found Xing’s speech inappropriate. In another survey, 63 percent perceived Xing’s conduct as “intimidating” and “belittling” South Korea. Even before this incident, 81 percent of South Koreans held negative views of China, and Xing rubbed salt into the wound. After Xing’s diatribe, a survey found that 76 percent of South Korean see China as unfit to become South Korea’s strategic partner.

Xing’s “verbal catastrophe,” as South Koreans call the incident, is likely to reinforce Yoon’s reversal of South Korea’s previous engagement with China. For the past two decades, Seoul has looked to Beijing for its economy and Washington for its security. Deference to China defied partisan lines in this calculation.

In 2003, former liberal President Roh Moo-hyun was determined to visit China to expand the scope of bilateral partnership amid the SARS outbreak; he became the first foreign head to land in Beijing after travel restrictions were lifted. Former conservative President Lee Myung-bak devoted his term (2008-2013) to negotiating a free trade agreement with China. His successor, Park Geun-hye, finalized the deal in 2013. She even attended a military parade in China in 2015, clapping at Chinese soldiers alongside Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, and thereby vexing Washington. Although her liberal successor, Moon Jae-in, infuriated China by deploying the U.S. THAAD missile defense system in 2017, he assuaged Beijing with promises to check Seoul’s further military cooperation with Washington and Tokyo.

Yoon wants none of that. Since before he started his presidential term, he has insisted on “uprooting our submissive diplomacy of one-way respect for China.” Yoon set a default of “confident diplomacy” vis-á-vis China. And the public fury adds weight to his conviction.

Amid the outcry, the PPP is now pouncing on the Democratic Party with the 2024 general election in mind. Tirades against Lee and his party are unfiltered: The opposition leader has been called “China’s puppet” and accused of “kowtowing.” Critics slammed him for having a “DNA for humiliation,” and practicing a “diplomacy of self-mutilation.”

Undeterred, a dozen members of the Democratic Party went to Beijing and Tibet, where they asked China to resume sending group tours to South Korea and stressed the importance of addressing the damage done by Xing.

Despite the headwinds from Xing, the opposition party is staying the course of what it calls “maintaining communication channels with China on behalf of Yoon’s incompetent government.” It says that officials and business tycoons from Europe and the United States are visiting China regardless of their tough talk and that South Korea risks isolation. They pointed out that the share of South Korea’s exports to China dropped to 19 percent in the first quarter of 2023 from 25 percent in 2020. As a result, Seoul incurred the worst trade deficit since 1992. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party accused the PPP of whipping up anti-China sentiments for their approval ratings, rather than seeking solutions.

Both of South Korea’s major parties say they want to ensure dignity in South Korea’s relationship with China. The question is whether dignity means more money or a straighter backbone.