Japan and China As Charm Rivals by Sun Jing;

Author:Sun, Jing;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Michigan Press

A New Obstacle to Wooing: Are We Still in the Same League?

Lee Myung-bak assumed South Korea's presidency at a time of escalating hostility toward both China and Japan. Lee reduced tensions with Tokyo, but has he improved emotional relations with China? His tenure in office did not get off to a promising start, as Beijing saw him as a much less welcoming figure as a consequence of his more explicit pro-U.S. stance and his eagerness to reach out to Japan based on “common values.” But Lee has since made some unprecedented wooing gestures to lower Chinese hostility: Lee became the first head of a foreign state to visit the Sichuan earthquake site, hugging and crying with local residents. He also surprised Chinese college students by disclosing his love affair with a Chinese woman in an otherwise serious diplomatic speech. The two countries have signed a declaration elevating their relations to “strategic comprehensive partnership,” a status Japan and South Korea have yet to achieve.

There is, however, a rising fear that may justify and strengthen historically based suspicions: Is China looking beyond Japan and South Korea for diplomatic partners (table 6)? With little affection present, both the Korean and the Japanese publics may be concerned whether China continues its regional chauvinism.

In short, combining the Chinese experience with that of Japan reveals a clear pattern: In spite of expanding material exchanges, a value-based embrace between South Korea and either country is largely missing. In late 2007, a Chinese newspaper polled twelve thousand Chinese and found that 40.1 percent selected South Korea as the country they disliked the most, with Japan receiving 30.2 percent of the votes. The result compelled the editors to call for “stopping the cold current at the people-to-people level in Sino-Korean relations.”112 Japan remained at the top of the list of countries South Koreans dislike the most (57 percent), followed by China (far behind at 13 percent). Both were more disliked than even North Korea, with a nearly bankrupt international reputation.113

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