NORTHEAST ASIAN HISTORY FOUNDATION 05/2022
-
Sim Ho-seong, Researcher at the Research Institute of International Relations and Historical Interaction
For us, living in the Republic of Korea in 2022, our neighbor, the People's Republic of China, is giving us a lot of trouble. In terms of the political, economic, and social values it pursues, China is very different from South Korea. Moreover, China has been seen as a major threat in diplomacy and security to its neighbors. Its aggressive and expansionist military and foreign policy have been in full swing since the 2010s. However, given that China already has become Korea's biggest trading partner for quite some time now, it is difficult for Korea to keep its distance from China. Korea is facing a dilemma as China challenges the existing international order led by the USA by calling for the Chinese Dream and the “Great Revival of the Chinese Nation.” A pleasant book came out in these difficult times. It is the 『Empire and Righteous Nation: 600 Years of China-Korea Relations』 by Odd Arne Westad, who teaches modern and contemporary East Asian international relations at Yale University, USA. China dreams of reviving an East Asian 'empire,' Westad suggests that we try to understand the "long-term development of East Asia's history" to figure out "important international issues" related to the Korean Peninsula" and "what alternatives we have."
600 Years of China-Korea Relations
In 『Empire and Righteous Nation』, Westad examines the relationship between the Korean Peninsula and China from a long historical perspective by dividing the period from the end of the 14th century to the present day into three parts. Chapter 1 of this book describes the history of relations between the Korean Peninsula and China from 1392 to 1866. This was when China's Ming and Qing Empires were in a firm position as the undisputed hegemon in East Asia. During this period, Joseon on the Korean Peninsula recognized the Chinese Empire as a superior state or suzerainty country, thereby voluntarily upholding the regional order in East Asia led by the empire, making it possible to remain an independent state clearly distinct from China outside the empire. Interestingly, Neo-Confucian values and worldview were crucial factors that enabled Joseon to maintain its political independence and independent 'national' identity concerning the Chinese Empire during this period. Chapter 2 deals with Korean-Chinese relations between 1866 and 1992. During this period, China lost its status as a hegemonic power in East Asia due to successive challenges from Western powers and Japan and the emergence of the Cold War led by the United States and the Soviet Union. As a result, China's influence on the Korean Peninsula has either wholly disappeared or has significantly declined over time. However, the Qing, the Nationalist Party, and Communist Party that ruled China during this period all wanted to restore China's central position in East Asia. This attitude was reflected in their policies on the Korean Peninsula. Chapter 3 briefly covers the period from 1992, when the People's Republic of China established formal diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea, to the present day. With the establishment of diplomatic ties between Korea and China in 1992, China restored official relations with the entire Korean Peninsula, including both South and North Korea, for the first time since it lost its influence on the Korean Peninsula at the end of the 19th century. However, the relationship between the Korean Peninsula and China, which was reconstructed at the end of the 20th century, was very different from the relationship between Joseon and the Chinese Empire in the past.
When and Why did China Intervene in the Affairs of the Korean Peninsula?
Historically, China only intervened militarily on the Korean Peninsula when competing with other powers for hegemony in East Asia. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Japan invaded Joseon at the end of the 16th century, the Ming Empire dispatched its army to Joseon to protect the country, which had been a faithful member of the East Asian regional order it was leading, from Japan, which was challenging the hegemony of the Ming Empire from outside the East Asian regional order at the time. More realistically, it sent troops to Joseon as they judged the Japanese attack as an immediate threat to the northeastern region of the Ming Empire. In the early 17th century, the Qing Empire invaded Joseon in the process of fighting for supremacy in East Asia against the Ming Empire to separate Joseon from the East Asian regional order centered on the Ming Empire. Since then, the Qing Empire has emerged as a new hegemonic power in East Asia that conquered all of mainland China and replaced the Ming Empire.
At the end of the 19th century, Japan, after the Meiji Reformation, challenged the Qing Empire's hegemony in East Asia. The Korean Peninsula became the main stage of the struggle for supremacy between the Qing Empire and the Japanese Empire. The Qing Empire, which regained its military confidence through the Westernization Movement, sought to transform its status as a superior country on the Korean Peninsula into a European-style imperial system. The Qing Empire stationed troops in Joseon following the Imo Military Revolt and the Gapsin Coup (Korea). Yuan Shikai, a Qing military officer who stayed in Joseon for ten years before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War (virtually acted as the governor-general in Joseon), attempted to replace the Qing Empire's traditional suzerainty over Joseon with something similar to the relationship between Western powers and colonies. Finally, during the Korean War, when the US-led UN and South Korean forces reached the border between the Korean Peninsula and China, the People's Republic of China believed that foreign troops stationed in the border area would pose an existential threat to the Chinese communist regime and therefore dispatched a huge army to the Korean Peninsula to prevent the situation because the Korean Peninsula was the gateway to China as it always has been in the past.
Peace vs. War: Future of the Korean Peninsula
From this history, Westad predicts that China is highly likely to intervene militarily in the Korean Peninsula if it sees that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is not in its own interests since the US military is stationed in South Korea. The most realistic scenario would be the sudden collapse of the North Korean regime. China would intervene militarily on the Korean Peninsula in any form to secure a buffer zone along the North Korea-China border. If this becomes a reality, an international war could break out on the Korean Peninsula. The competition for hegemony between the United States and China is becoming visible in East Asia. Westad emphasized that China should prioritize East Asian interests over its own, accept the unification of the Korean Peninsula led by a democratic government, and let North Korea go when the regime begins to collapse to prevent a future war on the Korean Peninsula.
『Empire and Righteous Nation』 is not a study that revealed a new or previously underappreciated historical view by analyzing various historical materials politically. Also, since Westad began to study the history of the Korean Peninsula in earnest to write this book, some errors were found in the Korean history-related parts of the book. Personally, I think Westad needs to explain why he defined pre-modern China as an 'empire' in this book. Despite these shortcomings, 『Empire and Righteous Nation』 can be said to be of great value in that it faithfully summarized the existing studies on the history of the Korean Peninsula and China and examined how the complex international situation surrounding today's Korean Peninsula has historically been developed in a long breath. Westad shows remarkable insight in discovering long-term and historical patterns that have repeatedly appeared (and are expected to appear in the future) in Korea-China relations. In particular, his suggestions for preventing war on the Korean Peninsula in the future are worth paying attention to. I recommend this book to readers interested in East Asia's history and international politics centered on the Korean Peninsula and China.
The user can freely use the public work without fee, but it is not permitted to use for commercial purpose, or to change or modify the contents of public work.
- Northeast Asia History Network
- Northeast Asia History Library
- DOKDO Research Institute
- DOKDO Museum Seoul
- Education and Training
