Such a suggestion appears in an article of 14 August 2012 in YaleGlobal, an online platform, with the tagline "Beijing Unflustered by Cool Ties With Seoul - South Koreans blame their government for deteriorating relations, as China stands pat". The article is authored by Scott W. Harold, an associate political scientist specializing in Chinese foreign policy and East Asian security affairs at The RAND Corporation, a US-based think-tank. Click here
South Korea is one of the largest investors in China, resulting in an estimated total of some 2.3 million South Koreans living in China, making it the largest ethnic Korean population living outside the Korean Peninsula. Many of South Korea's world-class companies leverage their global competiveness through their investments in China.
Recently, China, Japan, and South Korea have vowed to boost investment in each others' bonds, suggesting that the three Asian giants are very closely bound together economically. Click here
Managing relations with a recalcitrant North Korea is by no means a walk-over for China, though no doubt the North Koreans depend a great deal on China's largesse. But politcal chaos and instability in North Korea has been Beijing's main worry. Hence, China's discouragement of North Korean refugees as China would be the first and most to suffer from a North Korean refugee floodgate. All the while, China has been trying to get the North Koreans to reform (like China) and has been instrumental in brokering the famed six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear armament drive. For a stable and prosperous North Korea, along with a friendly and mutually-beneficial economic and diplomatic relationship with South Korea would be in China's best interest.
So while some observers, as in the case of Scott Harold in the Yale Global article, may view a fossilized North Korea as China's best bulwark, China does not appear to buy this. Indeed, there are now early signs that China's past efforts in getting North Korea to reform may finally appear to show some green shoots under the young Kim. A powerful military top-brass was recently relieved of his leading post and a more humane face of North Korea is beginning to appear, starting with Micky Mouse and Western music. More importanly, North Korea is now showing much more active interest in copying China's open economic model.
Naturally there are still nationalistic sensitivities to be managed between China and South Korea, not least of which is the history of Koguryeo. But history also shows that even in the not-so-distant past, a number of adjacient territories such as Mongolia (before independence in 1911), were part of the Chinese state. China has long recognised these historic realities, including territorial boundaries with South Korea and Russia, with the exception of a number of islands in the South China Sea and a border province in India.
Now Koguryeo remains only a matter of national cultural pride, not of territorial dispute. Even in terms of culture, both countries have long recognized and treasured their very close Confucian cultural affinities, including respect for elderly authority in the family.
Therefore, it is no surprise that across the entire spectrum of South Korea's political parties, a pro-active cordial relationship with China is dearly prized. And China would be the last to be reminded that notwithstanding understable differences in national priorities, cementing a closer China-South Korean relationship would be in China's best interest as well.
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