China’s ambassador accused Seoul of excessively leaning towards the US during a meeting with South Korea’s opposition leader.
South Korea’s foreign ministry has called on China’s ambassador to protest remarks he made accusing Seoul of leaning toward the United States and away from China as competition between Washington and Beijing for global influence intensifies.
South Korea’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin on Friday warned Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming about his “meaningless and provocative” remarks he made a day earlier during a meeting with a South Korean opposition leader.
The ministry accused Xing of violating diplomatic protocols and interfering in South Korean domestic politics, but did not specify which parts of Xing’s comments it considered inappropriate. The ministry also did not share what Xing said in response to Chang.
When asked about the criticism, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the current challenges in Sino-South Korean relations “are not caused by China”.
“It is Ambassador Xing’s job to be extensively involved with the ROK [South Korean] government, political parties and people from all walks of life exchange views on bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest and share China’s position and concerns,” he said at a regular news briefing in Beijing.
In a meeting Thursday with Lee Jae-myung, leader of the South Korean Democratic Party, a major rival of conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, Xing accused Yoon’s government of relying excessively on Seoul’s ally, the United States, and its relations with China, its biggest ally. trading partner.
Xing said South Korea was entirely responsible for the “many difficulties” in bilateral relations, citing the growing trade deficit with China that he attributed to “de-Chinaization” efforts, apparently referring to actions by South Korean companies to move their supply chains away from China.
He demanded that Seoul respect Beijing’s core interests, including Taiwan – which China claims as its own territory – and other important regional issues.
‘Wrong Judgment’
“With the United States pushing China with all its might, some are betting that the United States will win and China will lose. But this is clearly a misjudgment,” Xing said, describing a bright future for his country under leader Xi Jinping. “What can be said with certainty is that those who bet on China’s defeat will surely regret it later,” Xing said.
The South Korean foreign ministry said Xing’s “irresponsible” comments contradicted “the desire of the governments and people of both countries to value and further develop relations between South Korea and China on the basis of of mutual respect”.
Xing also brought up economic ties, saying South Korea’s trade deficits had worsened because of its efforts to “decouple” from China, but that it could “get the bonus” of China’s economic growth if its confidence in the bilateral ties are restored.
“The two countries have built an inseparable economic structure in which their industrial and supply chains are closely linked,” he said.
South Korea, whose economy relies heavily on the export of computer memory chips and other technological products, is struggling to balance the United States, its decades-long military ally, with China, its largest buyer of its goods, as the rivalry between Washington and Beijing deepens in regional influence and technology.
Faced with a growing nuclear threat from North Korea, Yoon has aggressively pushed to strengthen the alliance with the US, making it a central goal of his policy.
Seoul has expanded joint military training with the US and is seeking stronger assurances that it will use its nuclear weapons swiftly and decisively to defend South Korea in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack.
The Biden administration, in turn, has sought stronger three-way cooperation with South Korea and Japan to confront both the North Korean threat and China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.