Focus Issues

Insight

Recently, US-China relations have produced a verbal framework agreement on 'strategic stability' and detente rhetoric following their summit, yet they simultaneously exhibit a dual aspect where substantive nuclear modernization and capability competition centered on high-tech infrastructure are actually intensifying. Based on the narrative of America's declining hegemony, China continues an offensive posture and a dual-track response toward the US, failing to resolve structural conflicts through gray-zone pressure in the Taiwan Strait and competition for leadership in AI governance. In this phase, South Korea must strictly separate symbolic rhetoric from substantive competition between the US and the front lines of the US-China dynamic, pursuing sophisticated risk management that dualizes security-linked areas and commercial areas while securing independent communication channels.