뉴스레터

Last year, the NAHF and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS, Director WANG Zhan (王戰)) of China started co-hosting a regular conference. In its second year, this conference was held on June 25, 2014, under the theme "The Changing New Order of Northeast Asia and the New Situation."

The conference was opened with the keynote speeches by NAHF Secretary General Seok Tong-Youn and SASS Vice President HUANG Ren Wei (黃仁偉). They stressed that "Korea and China should closely observe the reality faced by the Northeast Asian region, and play constructive roles in the common development of East Asia."

Proposal for Joint Historical Research by the Three Northeast Asian Nations

Session 1, presided over by Liu Ming (劉鳴), President of the Institute of International Relations at the SASS, had presentations and discussions on 'Japan's View of History and a New Order in Northeast Asia.' Research Fellow Doh See-hwan at the NAHF and Dr. Lian Degui (廉德瑰) at the SIIS (Shanghai Institutes for International Studies) gave the presentations, 'Japan's Perception of History from the Perspective of International Law,' and 'Asianism, Historical Views, and a New Order in Northeast Asia,' respectively. Dr. Lian Degui noted that "Japan's view of history is ideological and hard to change." I spoke on 'Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Perception of History and the Outlook of Trilateral Relations among Korea, China, and Japan,' proposing that "although basically Prime Minister Abe is to blame for the present conflicts between China and Japan, and between Korea and Japan, China as 'a responsible power (有責任的大國)' should control conflicts within the East Asian region, and Korea should mediate in resuming the trilateral summit."

Session 2 addressed the new concept of China's diplomacy with its neighboring countries and the new situation. Professor Fang Xiuyu (方秀玉) at Fudan University, Research Fellow Hong Myeon-ki at the NAHF, and Dr. Li Kaisheng (李開盛) at the SASS examined the new concept of China's diplomacy with its neighboring countries, the direction of the unification of the Korean Peninsula, and China's analysis of benefits from territorial disputes, respectively. Professor Fang introduced four key words, "amity (親), sincerity (誠), mutual benefit (惠), and inclusiveness (容)," as the new concepts that define China's diplomacy with its neighboring countries, and interpreted it as "in the same context as building a community sharing a common destiny with its neighboring countries." Research Fellow Hong stressed that "since the issue of the peace and unification of the Korean Peninsula is the touchstone of peace in East Asia, it should be included in the new concepts of China's diplomacy with its neighboring countries."

Session 3, presided over by Professor Ahn In-hae at Korea University, dealt with 'The U.S. Strategy toward Northeast Asia and Regional Cooperation.' Research Fellow Bae Chin-soo at the NAHF analyzed the effects that territorial conflicts in East Asia have on international order. Dr. Jiao Shixin (焦世新) at the SASS analyzed the effects that the U.S strategy of re-balancing have on regional cooperation in East Asia. Professor Min Byung-won at Ewha Womans University analyzed the changes in the US policy toward East Asia. Dr. Jiao Shixin analyzed that the U.S. strategy of re-balancing had caused the center of the regional cooperation mechanism in East Asia to shift away from the ASEAN and toward China and the United States, and that this was restraining the trilateral cooperation mechanism among Korea, China, and Japan.

Through this conference, the regular academic exchange between the NAHF and the SASS came on the track. And the papers presented in this conference were based on more in-depth academic research and policy analysis compared to the last year. Significantly, 'joint historical research by Korea, China, and Japan' was proposed as a policy, taking one step further from the existing 'joint historical research between China and Japan, or between Korea and Japan.'