"The 30th Anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and South Korea & the future of the bilateral relations" Academic Conference

"The 30th Anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and South Korea & the future of the bilateral relations" academic conference co-hosted by the Korean Political Science Association, the Institute of Chinese Humanity and Social Studies at Kookmin University, and the Institute of Asian Studies at Korea University, was successfully held on June 30. As now the bilateral relationship faces greater challenges, leading scholars and experts from China and South Korea gathered to discuss their thoughts on the current state of bilateral relations as well as the future of China-South Korea relations.

Chinese participants included H.E. XING Haiming (Incumbent Chinese Ambassador to R.O.K.), H.E. NING Fukui (former Chinese Ambassador to South Korea), Dr. XU Bu (President of the China Institute for Int'l Studies), Prof. ZHANG Yuyan (Senior Fellow & Director of Institute of World Economics and Politics at CASS), Prof. SHI Yinhong (Professor of Int'l Relations at the Renmin University of China & iGCU Acad. Comm. Member), Prof. ZHU Feng (Director of the Institute of Int'l Studies at Nanjing University & iGCU Acad. Comm. Member), Prof. WANG Dong (Executive Director of iGCU & Professor of the School of Int'l Studies at PKU), etc. South Korean participants included H.E Shin Jung-seung (former South Korean Ambassdor to China), along with other high rank South Korean officials and renowned experts.

At the beginning of the conference, H.E. NING Fukui pointed out that ever since China and South Korea established diplomatic relationship in 1992, the cooperation between the two countries has achieved fruitful results, and enabled China and South Korea to become each other’s important partners.

H.E SHIN Jung-seung conceived that, despite all the challenges facing China-South Korea relation, the bilateral ties have been growing steadily. Amb. Shin noted that it would continue to be of South Korea’s national interest to maintain good relationships with neighboring countries, to support and maintain open and free trade, and to actively take part in multilateral international cooperation in various fields.

Following H.E SHIN Jung-seung’s speech, H.E. XING Haiming first reviewed Chinese and Korean people’s history of fighting against Japanese aggression and then suggested that China and South Korea should strengthen coomunication, enhance mutual understanding and promote people-to-people exchanges for the elimination of misconceptions and correct false stereotypes. It is also of great importance for the both countries to take a dispassionate view of each other’s strategic intentions.

When talking about the current challenges facing the bilateral relationship, Dr. XU Bu suggested that it is the widespread misperceptions towards China and irrational anti-China sentiment amongst South Korean youngsters that has been damaging the bilateral relations. Thus, he reckoned that the leaders of both China and South Korea should work together to strengthen cooperation and further promote effective communications between people.

The speech of Prof. ZHANG Yuyan focused on China and South Korea’s economic and trade relations. He pointed out that the two countries' economic and trade relations face both opportunities and challenges as to the industrial division of labor and the digital economy. Cooperation between both sides in the fields of currency and investment also needs to be deepened.

Slightly different from the majority of scholars, Prof. SHI Yinhong took a more pessimistic view, predicting a bleak future of China and South Korea relations. Prof. Shi conceived that considering China's relationship with North Korea as well as South Korea’s alliance with the U.S., there remains uncertainties over how China-South Korea relations would evolve.

Prof. WANG Dong pointed out that China and South Korea have extensive common interests and space for cooperation, especially on economic, trade, the North Korean nuclear issues, etc. Prof. Wang suggested that as China and South Korea are dependent on each other economically, both are heavily influenced by Confucianism culturally, and sharing the same responsibility to maintain peace in Northeast Asia, it is of great necessity for the two countries to work together and cope with challenges, aiming to attain mutual goals and achieve regional peace, stability, and prosperity.