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Reviews
A Compass for Proper Exchange between Korea and China
    Written by Cha, Jae Bok, Research Fellow, Department of Policy Research

On December 23, 2014, the NAHF hosted the 2014 Korea-China People-to-People Academic Exchange Forum in Seoul, co-organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) (Social Sciences Press, Center for Korean Studies) and the Korean Society for Contemporary Chinese Studies. A follow-up to the 2013 China-Korea People-to-People Academic Exchange Forum in Beijing. this Seoul Forum was held under the grand theme of "Korea-China Relations for Proper Communication and Coexistence among East Asian Countries" and participated by 31 experts from Korea and China. The forum was divided into Session 1 'Proper People-to-People Exchange between Korea and China for Communication in East Asia' and Session 2 'Korea-China Relations for Coexistence in East Asia' and there were heated discussions. The Chinese scholars who attended this forum showed their good manners by staying in their seats till the end, and also demonstrated their prepared presentations to be authentic and truthful.

As an observer of this forum, I think that its key phrase was "proper exchange." What was the volume of trade between Korea and each of major countries over the last year (Jan.-Nov. 2014)? According to KITA (Korea International Trade Association) statistics, the trade volume amounted to $264.38 billion between Korea and China, $105.49 billion between Korea and the U.S., and $79.1 billion between Korea and Japan. And in 2013, there were a total of 10,678,334 foreign visitors to Korea, of whom China accounted for 36.7% (3,923,190 visitors), Japan 25.4% (2,715,451 visitors), the U.S. 7.0% (743,017 visitors) and European countries 5.6% (593,863 visitors). Evidently, China is the country with the most active exchange of goods as well as a notable growth in the exchange of people with Korea. Furthermore, the two countries declared the de facto conclusion of the Korea-China FTA on November 10, 2014, twenty-two years after they established diplomatic relations. This will no doubt lead to the 'acceleration' and 'expansion' of "exchange" between Korea and China.

The Forty Years of China-Japan Relations Offer Korea-China Relations Lessons to Learn

It should be noted that just as a coin has two sides, there is a flip side of increasing exchange between countries, with both positive and negative factors and the elements of both conflict and cooperation emerging at the same time. Korea-China relations and China-Japan relations have many things in common in many ways. China and Japan normalized their diplomatic relations in 1972, and Korea and China established their diplomatic relations in 1992. Even though there is a 20-year time difference between the normalization of China-Japan relations and that of Korea-China relations, and the relationship between Japan and Korea is marked as a special relationship as a developed country giving aid and a developing country receiving aid, China-Japan relations offer Korea-China relations a great deal of lessons to learn from. In the first twenty years from 1972 to the Japanese Emperor's visit to China in 1992, China-Japan relations had stayed within the framework of friendship and cooperation. In the second twenty years from the mid 1990s to the present, however, the bilateral relations have been highlighted by elements of conflict and confrontation rather than friendship and cooperation, although their mutual exchange has been much more vigorous than it had been in the first twenty years.

Today, even though Korea-China relations are 20 years behind China-Japan relations, the Korea-China trade volume ($264.38 billion) is comparable to the China-Japan trade volume ($284.74 billion). This statistical data is the living proof that Korea-China relations have made remarkable development. In the past ten years or so, however, Korea-China relations have been plagued by a series of controversial events such as the Northeast Project (2002), the Garlic Dispute (2004), the Kimchi Crisis (2005), and the Controversy over the Original Culture (2005), and security conflicts surrounding the ROKS Cheonan sinking and the bombardment of Yeonpyeong (2010). In recent years, under the banner of the importance of the sea, China has founded a new government organization known as the State Bureau for Oceanography and, all of a sudden, established the CADIZ (China Air Defense Identification Zone) arbitrarily without prior consultation with Korea. Perhaps China might start making unilateral claims surrounding the Korea-China Maritime Borderline Demarcation, and Ieodo.

As illustrated in the comparison above between the development of China and Japan over the course of 40 years since the normalization of their diplomatic relations and that of Korea and China over their 20 years, an increase in exchange not necessarily works in favor of development. In terms of economic exchange, Korea is China's third largest trading partner, and China Korea's first. Korea and China are in a situation where they are economically inseparable, as Chinese scholars also put it. Therefore, to create a virtuous cycle of development for Korea-China relations going forward, it is necessary that efforts to make it happen need to be made continuously. This forum is also one of such efforts. Specifically, it was an occasion to shed an academic light on what kind of efforts should be made by (the peoples of) the two nations in this situation with the potential for conflict in the future Korea-China relations and within the Northeast Asian region.

'Building Trust' is the Key to Overcome Lurking Causes of Conflict

In the opening address, NAHF President Kim Hak-joon noted that Korean President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping had met as many as five times since the Beijing summit in June 2013 and each time mentioned the importance of people-to-people exchange. He emphasized the "need for people-to-people academic exchange between Korea and China by which the relevant think-tanks and experts of both countries should build a foundation for promoting desirable people-to-people exchange between the two peoples, and, at the same time, serve as a compass pointing in the right direction." Yang Qun (楊群), Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, presented statistics by area demonstrating the dramatic development made in Korea-China relations over the last two decades or so, and suggested that "in order to ensure that Korea-China relations would remain on track and achieve stable development, the expert groups from the two countries should act as mediators." Xie Lili (賈俐) with the CASS Bureau of International Cooperation, having observed the forum all day, enthusiastically expressed his views for discussion in a general review, drawing attention to the importance of building trust as the basic element of every relationship, by saying, "It is necessary to double the effort to build trust when the relationship is good."

In the process of the 2013 Beijing Forum and then the 2014 Seoul Forum, this forum has reached a conclusion as to where it should be headed, as follows. First, people-to-people academic exchange between Korea and China should lay the foundation for the future Korea-China relations so that their 40 years would not be the same as the 40 years of China-Japan relations. Second, this forum should propose academically reviewed plans so that people-to-people exchange between the Korean and Chinese peoples could work in favor of the development of the bilateral relations. Third, this forum should establish a channel of academic dialogue which could effectively manage the friction and adverse effect of the exponentially growing "exchange" of people and goods between Korea and China.