Opening a New Chapter in Building a Cooperative Order in Asia: EAI Commentary No. 35

Ha Young-sun, Chairman of the East Asia Institute (EAI) and Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University, currently serves as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on National Security. He holds a Ph.D. in International Politics from the University of Washington.

Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit to Seoul. For this visit to be remembered as a historic encounter rather than merely a splendid event, the concerted efforts of both South Korea and China are paramount.

Building a New South Korea-U.S.-China Relationship Through a Post-Cold War Cooperative Perspective

The Asian Cold War order, which began in earnest with the Korean War after World War II, entered a new era of change with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The United States, a status quo power still holding its ground despite facing relative challenges in the Asian power balance, and China, a rapidly growing rising power, are striving to build a new type of great power relationship, avoiding the conflicts and clashes of the past. The U.S. emphasizes that its Asian rebalancing policy is entirely different from the containment policies of the Cold War order, while China stresses that its new model of great power relations is far removed from the theory of 'when a nation becomes strong, it will inevitably seek hegemony' (國强必覇論). Nevertheless, the U.S. and China have not yet built the trust necessary to accept each other as complete partners.

Amidst these difficulties, the two great powers must evolve the South Korea-China-U.S. relationship to a new level as a measure to strengthen comprehensive trust-building. In the Cold War order, the relationship between South Korea and China, and between South Korea and the U.S., were inevitably conflictual. However, for Asia to quickly move beyond the Cold War order and establish a new cooperative order (共進秩序), South Korea, China, and the U.S. must all make concerted efforts to guide the South Korea-China and South Korea-U.S. relationships not as dichotomous conflicts but as mutually complementary complex relationships.

China needs to adopt a post-Cold War cooperative perspective that recognizes the necessity of strengthening the South Korea-U.S. relationship simultaneously with strengthening the South Korea-China relationship. At the same time, the U.S. must overcome the apprehension that the evolution of a new South Korea-China relationship will lead to the deterioration of the traditional South Korea-U.S. relationship. Within this new South Korea-China-U.S. relationship, South Korea will comprehensively pursue the deepening of the traditional South Korea-U.S.-Japan network and the expansion of the nascent South Korea-China network, transcending the outdated dichotomy of 'pro-U.S.' and 'pro-China' sentiments.

Building a Cooperative Order Among South Korea, China, and Japan: From Core Interests to Shared Interests

Another task that South Korea and China must work on together is the construction of a cooperative order among South Korea, China, and Japan. The possibility of cooperation between China and Japan is very dim. While China proclaims a neighborhood diplomacy based on 'friendship, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness' (親誠惠容), it experiences severe conflicts over sharp core interests with Japan, as seen in territorial disputes. Meanwhile, Japan, under its national security strategy based on 'proactive pacifism,' interprets China's rise as a path toward hegemony and is attempting to respond from a 19th-century perspective of modern international politics. Consequently, Japan argues that South Korea, sharing the values of market democracy, must join in preventing China's rise to hegemony, while China believes that South Korea, which shares the painful experiences of Japanese imperialism in the first half of the 20th century, must jointly prevent Japan's militarization.

However, these perspectives must evolve. If East Asia in the 19th century faced immense difficulties by failing to keep pace with the positive competition of the Western modern international order, then East Asia in the 21st century will face another arduous journey if it fails to graduate from the negative conflicts of the modern international order. To avoid repeating such folly, South Korea and China must begin efforts to formulate and implement a common vision for the three East Asian nations, leading Japan with the support of the United States.

First and foremost, we must restrain the domestic political exploitation of conflicts over mutual core interests occurring in traditional political and economic arenas. Second, we must maximize shared interests in emerging arenas such as the environment, culture, and knowledge. More long-term, we must foster a shared complex identity among the younger generations, who will bear the future of the three nations, enabling them to embrace their individual nations, Asia, and the globe together on the foundation of open nationalism.

South Korea-China Cooperation on North Korea: Cooperative Efforts for Denuclearization and Peace Settlement

Finally, South Korea and China must jointly support North Korea so that it can confidently stand as a proud protagonist on the 21st-century Asian stage. In its New Year's address, North Korea declared it would usher in a golden age of military-first politics based on the 'parallel development' (병진로선) of nuclear weapons and economic development. However, in the current international political reality of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, continued nuclear weapon development makes economic development at a level that would allow North Korea to confidently participate in the 21st-century global economy realistically impossible. Therefore, for the future of a developed North Korea in the 21st century, it is necessary for South Korea, China, and other relevant parties, including the United States, to jointly work towards establishing a 'Parallel Development 2.0' where North Korea pursues both denuclearization and economic development, by accelerating the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and in East Asia, and simultaneously preparing a global-scale economic support system. As a first step, the leaders of South Korea and China must strongly state their opposition to North Korea's fourth nuclear test, which would result in negative consequences for North Korea, the Korean Peninsula, East Asia, and the world, and resume the Six-Party Talks to earnestly pursue cooperative efforts to resolve the North Korean issue.

If South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping demonstrate a sincere commitment to resolving the three major challenges facing the Korean Peninsula, China, and Asia from a new 21st-century perspective, President Xi's visit to South Korea will open a new chapter in building a cooperative order for the Korean Peninsula and Asia. ■

This commentary is a Korean translation of an op-ed published in the Global Times (環球時報) on July 4. (Source: http://opinion.huanqiu.com/opinion_world/2014-07/5047260.html)

The East Asia Institute (EAI) receives financial support for its research on middle power diplomacy from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. [EAI Commentary] aims to provide in-depth analysis and practical alternatives through balanced perspectives on major domestic and international issues. Please cite the source when quoting [EAI Commentary].