Newsletter

August 25, 2017 marked the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between South Korea and China, although the occasion became rather obscured by North Korea's missile launch and sixth nuclear test. At a time when the United States' deployment of the missile defense system THAAD in South Korea has chilled South Korea's relations with China, this month's interview turns to Director Lee Hee-ok of the Sungkyun Institute of China Studies, a leading institute in Chinese studies in South Korea, to gain insights on how relations between the two countries might be improved in the future.

Interviewer: Cha Jaebok (Research fellow, NAHF Research Institute of Korea-China Relations)

Lee Hee-ok (Sungkyunkwan University Professor & Director of Sungkyunkwan Institute of China Studies)

Professor Lee has worked as a researcher at the Pecking University Asia-Pacific Research Center, visiting professor at the Jilin Academy of Social Sciences as well as the University of Washington, and project professor at Japan's Nagoya University. Apart from currently teaching as a professor at Sungkyunkwan University, he serves as adjunct professor for the Capital Normal University, Tongji University, and Tianjin Foreign Studies University in China. He also is serving as a visiting professor at Jilin University and as an academic consultant for the Fudan University Center for Korean Studies. His main research interests lie in political changes in China and China's policy toward the Korean peninsula. In addition to publishing 100 or so academic articles, he is the author of the books "Exploring China's New Socialism," "Exploring China's New Democracy," and "A Study on China's Grand Strategy."

Q1 You must have no doubt been busy lately since it was the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between South Korea and China, but we would still like to start by asking how you've been recently and what research topics you've been interested in these days.

Lee Hee-ok Preparations for projects involving the occasion have begun since last year. Those projects are now being carried out, which include hosting an academic conference and an expert workshop, performing a survey on social changes among ethnic Koreans in China over the past twenty-five years, and creating a database of experts on Korean studies and the Korean peninsula. There was also an event that gathered some attention from the media for arranging cultural exchange between South Korean and Chinese youths born in 1992, the year when diplomatic ties were established between the two countries. However, the most significant project would be the publication of the "Twenty-Five Year History of Diplomatic Ties Between South Korea and China" co-authored by a group of Korean experts on China, which is something of an extension to the "Twenty Year History of Diplomatic Ties Between South Korea and China" co-published five years ago with the Northeast Asian History Foundation. I personally have been searching for new directions of interdisciplinary research in Chinese studies as I continue to study the China Risk, and I'm also considering new research methods and analytical approaches to study China's policy toward the Korean peninsula.

Q2 You've been studying Chinese politics for a long time since the 1980s when it wasn't easy to do so. What caused you to become interested in China back then? Chinese studies must have been both worthwhile and challenging for you throughout the years.

Lee Hee-ok The 1980s was a turbulent time under an authoritarian regime in South Korea. I developed a huge interest in China as an undergraduate when I read "Dialogue with 800 Million People," "Logic Behind Transition" and literature related to China published in Japanese and English, languages I had just begun to pick up at the time. The Cold War order was still operating back then, but there were vague expectations that the "Bamboo Curtain" would one day get lifted and open the road to a new China. I personally thought about becoming the first Korean correspondent in China. But information about China was not made public back then and only fragments about the reality in China could be learned through Taiwan. We weren't even allowed to use the term "China" instead of "Communist China." This academic thirst was mostly quenched in Hong Kong and I remember trying to find out about changes going on in China by struggling all day to uncover and pore over related material at the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. What I find worthwhile is the connections I've formed with people I met in China in 1989 before diplomatic ties were established by remaining in touch with them as well as the many Chinese students I've taught over the years.

Q3 The Sungkyunkwan Institute of Chinese Studies is a fairly new institute that was launched in 2012, so could you please tell us how it came to be expanded out of the Institute of East Asian Regional Studies and what it has achieved so far?

Lee Hee-ok The history of Chinese studies in South Korea goes back a long way and achievements have been made to some degree, but it has failed to cumulate sustainable research projects, an issue that obviously cannot be overcome by an individual's will under circumstances that leave much to be desired. More than anything, it was necessary to build an infrastructure for research, make academic achievements more visible, and create projects that fuse research and policy together. Based on such needs, we decided with the university to shift the Institute of East Asian Regional Studies' focus and concentrate on Chinese studies. So, we reshuffled the institute, added more experts, secured a larger budget, and began to build a new research infrastructure. It hasn't been long since we started, but we've made considerable process in building a database related to Chinese studies, establishing a policy-related network, combining policy with research, and producing a research agenda suitable for Korea in terms of Chinese studies. I personally tried to contribute to helping the institute settle down in its early stages, which has taken nearly ten years from when I started out as the director of the Institute of East Asian Regional Studies. I hope the Sungkyun Institute of Chinese Studies will aim to become not just another research center affiliated to a university, but a watchtower for Chinese studies here in Korea.

Q4 You published the book "Exploring China's New Socialism" in 2004 and "Exploring China's New Democracy" ten years later in 2014. Which system of government do you think China is currently heading toward?

Lee Hee-ok I've authored or translated a lot of books including "A Study on China's Grand Strategy," but what I have truly considered important is to try to understand the structure of discourse on ideologies so as to be able to fundamentally and critically understand China. "Exploring China's New Socialism" paid attention to the revisionist changes in Chinese socialism that took place after China went through reform and became open. I also tried to clarify through the book whether traditional socialist ideologies had changed or not from being adopted in China. "Exploring China's New Democracy" that came a decade later aimed to trace the ideals of a system that China has been developing while adapting to the current of the times since the twenty-first century. That process entailed both retention and disposal and the book examined the struggle between the properties and manifestations of socialism in China that occurred from that process. In the future, I'd like to supplement that with what happened to that process since the Xi Jinping administration took over and outline the course that China's socialist ideologies traveled over the years.

Q5 The recently published "Twenty-Five Year History of Diplomatic Ties Between South Korea and China" describes the current conflicts between Korea and China as a sort of "growing pains," so could you please explain what that exactly means? Also, do you think a resolution can be found for the issue over the THAAD deployment in Korea, a decision made this summer that has dragged Korea-China relations into a whole new phase?

Lee Hee-ok I would say that the change the THAAD deployment brought to Korea-China relations was not a coincidence, but an inevitable situation that occurs over the process of establishing a new chapter of the two countries' relations. As its power grew, China naturally began to switch from a regional to an international approach on its policy toward the Korean peninsula, particularly in terms of broadening the range of its core interests. For that reason, I believe it will be difficult for Korea-China relations to go back to the way it used to be before the THAAD deployment. Korean companies doing business in China have obviously been directly hit by the deployment, but we also need to take into consideration that some of those companies had already been struggling from losing their competitive edge before the deployment occurred. This implies that we should rethink taking a reductionist approach on issues Korea-China relations have been experiencing and blaming everything on the THAAD deployment. Issues surrounding the THAAD deployment reflects the difference between the two countries in terms of national interests, strategies, and perceptions, so rather than trying to come up with a single solution that can erase all differences, we need to switch into a mode of being more delicate in managing the situation.

Q6 In an interview with the press about the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties, you said that "the incumbent administration of Korea should reset its overall relations with China," which many scholars agree with. Yet, the reason Korea-China relations rapidly froze as of late could also be attributed to external factors such as the United States and Japan trying to keep China in check, the contest for hegemony between the United States and China, and the North Korean nuclear issue. While such barriers continue to exist, how should the South Korean government go about resetting its relations with China?

Lee Hee-ok In the past, security issues in Korea-China relations used to be soft ones involving economic trade or historical facts. Those of course took a considerable amount of opportunity cost to resolve, but they were mostly bilateral issues that would sometimes slip underneath the surface with the passing of time. However, the latest security issues have been hard ones that involve North Korea's nuclear development, alliance, and the THAAD defense system. In other words, they are linked to exogenous variables that are attached to the interests of many players, which means they are trickier issues that require a lot more time to resolve and many factors to consider. In that sense, Korea-China relations should not be played out like a game of chess to capture the king like Henry Alfred Kissinger once pointed out, but rather like a game of Go where securing just one more space of territory determines who the winner is. When playing Go, openings are important, and you need a strategic vision, use of tactics flexibly, and be bold enough to sacrifice a stone when necessary. With these, I think Korea also needs to rebuild its diplomatic culture and revamp its system of diplomatic governance.

Q7 A more powerful China now desires to take the lead in communicating with the world. The "One Belt, One Road" initiative President Xi Jinping proposed in the fall of 2013 has quickly made visible progress in Africa and Europe over the past four years. Meanwhile, in Asia, China is involved in historical, territorial disputes with countries along the former Silk Road routes like India, Vietnam, and the Philippines, but is at the same time working with such countries to restore those former routes. And China's "Northeast Area Revitalization Plan" continues to evolve with each day. Based on all these developments, what implications do you think China's One Belt, One Road strategy for globalization could have for the Korean peninsula?

Lee Hee-ok One Belt, One Road embodies the Xi Jinping administration's national brand and the design of China's regional strategy. In its early stages, the administration tended to avoid heading east so as not to run into the United States across the Pacific. However, such a regional strategy basically makes it difficult for China to succeed unless it chooses to take advantage of the window of opportunity open to the east. So, for China, it may be necessary to find an outlet at its northeastern region that borders the Korean peninsula. As you know, that region has been in low growth enough to be dubbed a "new northeast phenomenon" for remaining below China's average economic growth rate, and restructuring in the region has been slow as well. Perhaps what China needs is to include the area bordering the Korean peninsula in its One Belt, One Road strategy and come up with a new initiative. In the long run, industry is likely to be the key to resolving North Korean issues and that only seems possible if the border area's economy gets revived. South Korea's incumbent administration may also want to seriously consider ways to combine its new economic map for the Korean peninsula with the One Belt, One Road initiative.

Q8 Political circumstances in Northeast Asia continues to grow more complex, but humanities in Korea is in a critical situation and the number of Korean scholars willing to devote themselves to studying history or political science is dropping. At times like these, what would you like to say to future scholars who intend to study China?

Lee Hee-ok China is a subject for comparative politics. Chinese studies aim for academic rigor, but it can also be used for comparison in studying issues of our own in Korea. That is why collective intelligence is important to Chinese studies, which means we need to have academic discussions about developing fields of study, methodologies, and interdisciplinary research for Chinese studies. Future scholars who intend to commit themselves to Chinese studies should foremost be interested in China itself. And because political cycles last longer in China, recognizing the Chinese society's texture and detecting its tremors requires beforehand an understanding of its history no matter which topic you specialize in. I suggest going on field studies with a focus on the Chinese language. I also hope future scholars will take a deep interest in developing solid methodologies and exploring novel approaches rather than blindly pursue research trends. Yet, as someone who has gone down the path ahead of them, I find it a shame that our research infrastructure is not strong enough yet to be able to facilitate original research to come from up-and-coming scholars.

Q9 The Northeast Asian History Foundation reached its tenth anniversary last year, so we would finally like to ask for your evaluation on the Foundation's activities and advice on the role it should play for the advancement of Korea-China relations.

Lee Hee-ok It seems a bit late, but I would first like to congratulate the Foundation for reaching its tenth anniversary. I believe the progress the Foundation has managed to make under trying circumstances is the fruition of all the sweat invested by its staff. This is something I feel more than others because I've been following its progress for quite some time as a member of the Foundation's advisory committee. If I were to give my crude impression, it seems that despite having a group of excellent researchers, the Foundation doesn’t seem to have produced as much academic synergies so far. My guess is that the Foundation's activities have been excessively politicized and made it difficult to maintain a productive tension between academic research and policy. To prevent historical issues from being swayed by changes in political authority, I believe the Foundation has reached the point where it needs to renew its research environment, innovate its organizational culture, and hold more open discussions about the direction of its governance. As for contributing to Korea-China relations, the Foundation has strived for the relations by establishing a network with China despite having to work on prickly historical issues between Korea and China. I hope the Foundation will be able to look at Korea-China relations from a broader dimension and an alternate perspective in the future.