Stay up to date with free updates
Just sign up Geopolitics myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.
China has warned South Korea not to politicize economic issues after the two countries agreed to resume trade talks ahead of their first three-way summit in nearly five years.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, President Xi Jinping’s top adviser, met South Korean President Yun Seok-yeo in Seoul on Sunday. Beijing is pushing back against tougher U.S. restrictions on semiconductor sales to Chinese companies and President Joe Biden’s hike in tariffs on Chinese clean technology exports.
Japan and South Korea are at the heart of U.S. efforts to limit Chinese access to cutting-edge semiconductors and related technology, with Tokyo and Seoul coming under pressure from Washington in recent months to tighten controls on exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.
Premier Li Keqiang said Sunday that China and South Korea’s supply chains are “deeply intertwined,” adding that the two countries should “oppose turning economic and trade issues into political and security issues,” according to a report by state news agency Xinhua.
The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea will hold their first three-way talks in more than four years on Monday as East Asian countries seek to improve economic ties amid rising military tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.
The leaders of the three countries last met in late 2019 amid ongoing tensions between Japan and South Korea over historical issues related to Japan’s 20th century occupation of the Korean Peninsula.
Bilateral relations between Tokyo and Seoul have improved since then, but China’s relations with America’s two biggest allies have deteriorated as tensions between Beijing and Washington have intensified.
China also opposes increased military cooperation between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. At a tripartite summit with the United States last year, Japan and South Korea agreed to step up military cooperation to boost deterrence against China and North Korea.
South Korea’s Chief National Security Advisor Kim Tae-hyo told reporters last week that the agenda for the tripartite summit would include economy, trade, science and technology and people-to-people exchanges.
“This summit will mark a turning point toward the complete restoration and normalization of the tripartite cooperation system among South Korea, Japan and China,” Kim said.
However, the agenda does not include controversial security topics such as the rapid expansion of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program or the Taiwan issue.
Yun sparked outrage in Beijing last year when he blamed tensions over Taiwan on China’s “attempts to change the status quo by force.” Last week, Beijing summoned diplomats from South Korea and Japan to officially protest against their lawmakers’ attendance at the inauguration of Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te.
The official announcement of the three-way talks was delayed until just three days before Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were due to arrive in Seoul because of the sensitivity of the issue of Taiwan, according to people close to the talks. China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has threatened to annex it by force if Taipei refuses to govern it indefinitely.
“We are [to China] “Ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is extremely important for the international community, including Japan.”
Jaewoo Chu, director of the China Center at the Korea Institute for National Security Studies, a Seoul-based think tank, said China is also unhappy with increased military cooperation among U.S. allies, including an agreement reached last year to share real-time information on North Korean missile launches.
He added that the original purpose of the trilateral summit was to seek to conclude a tripartite free trade agreement (FTA), but that substantial progress was unlikely this week.
“Before the coronavirus pandemic, South Korea was pushing hard to conclude an FTA, but China was not ready to open up its services sector,” Chu said.
“Now China wants to do that, but Seoul is reluctant because Korean companies have lost a lot of competitiveness to their Chinese rivals in recent years.”
Japanese officials acknowledged that progress in free trade talks was unlikely, but stressed that “the most important thing is that tensions are eased.” [in the region] “There will be no escalation.”
Another Japanese government official said the leaders are expected to discuss security issues to some extent, but the tripartite summit may not even result in a joint statement. “It would be seen as progress if the three countries could agree to resume the trilateral talks and hold them on a regular basis,” the official said.
A Chinese scholar familiar with the talks said resuming dialogue after five years was “very significant.”
China fears the outbreak of a new Cold War and does not want a Northeast Asian bloc formed with China, North Korea and Moscow facing off against South Korea and Japan, both of which are backed by the United States, the scholar said.
Chinese officials likely expected little progress on security issues or a trade deal from this week’s talks, but even agreeing to resume the annual dialogue would be a positive and “contribute to tripartite cooperation,” he added.
