(Original title: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Response to Li in China)

On August 27th, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiangkun presided over a routine press conference.

A reporter from South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo asked that South Korea maintains close cooperation with China and the United States, but also maintains a certain distance. Under such circumstances, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said that South Korea cannot continue to follow the line of "relying on the United States for security and China for economy", and such logic cannot be maintained any longer. His statement has attracted widespread attention. Do you have any comments on this?

Guo Jiakun presided over the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Guo Jiakun said that a healthy, stable and continuously deepening China-ROK relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of the two peoples and is also conducive to regional and even world peace, stability, development and prosperity. This is the consensus between China and the ROK.

"The development of China-ROK relations stems from the common interests of both sides, and is not targeted at a third party, nor should it be affected by third-party factors." Guo Jiakun pointed out that China's policy towards South Korea maintains continuity and stability. It is hoped that South Korea will meet China halfway and work together to promote the sustained, healthy and stable development of China-ROK strategic cooperative partnership.

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After Li Ming "jumped the island" in Japan, he went to the United States to call on Trump. This was the first foreign visit of the progressive camp president since he took office. Before taking office, the former pro-democracy lawyer who had a strong anti-Japanese and anti-American tone had to compromise with reality and sent a friendly signal to Japan and the United States after taking office as president.

On August 23, at the official residence of the Prime Minister in Tokyo, Japan, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung (left) held a small-scale meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Yonhap News Agency

Before visiting Japan before visiting the United States, he first visited Japan and held closed-door small-scale talks with Shigeru Ishiba. This "surprise" was even said by insiders of the Japanese government that it was "unprecedented" during the conservative regime of South Korea. This not only eliminated Li Zai-ming's inherent anti-Japan image, but also officially restored "shuttle diplomacy." Although the two sides involved historical issues, they did not discuss specific issues. Instead, they focused on how to properly deal with relevant issues and promote future cooperation. Directional exchanges were conducted. Considering that South Korea and Japan are competitive in industry and have to pay an "alliance tax" to the United States, this "you have me, you have me" goodwill may not be entirely inspired by the United States.

The meeting with Trump is much more variable. First, Foreign Minister Zhao Xian temporarily cancelled his trip to Japan, went to the United States to coordinate the specific details of the work, and combined with the results of the meeting, it is likely that the two sides still did not reach a satisfactory consensus on trade negotiations. After Li Zaiming took office, the independent inspection team targeting Yin Xiyue raided the Osan base of the US military in South Korea for an unprecedented time. Although he has always reiterated that "only the part controlled by South Korea was searched, and it did not interfere with the affairs of the US military," it still made Trump attack on the truth social, saying, "Is there a purge or a revolution?"

Foreign media reported that Lee Jae-myung met with Trump

Fortunately, after the meeting, Lee Jae-myung first complimented Trump's "beautiful" redecoration of the Oval Office of the White House, praised Trump's continuous efforts and important role in peace on the peninsula, and said that a Trump Tower should be built in North Korea. This also brought Trump's commercial blowback: "We know each other and get along well. It's an honor to be with you and congratulations on your election. That's a big event, and we support you 100%." This was also interpreted by the Korean media as Trump's support for Lee Jae-myung's election and policy, which dealt a great blow to the "election fraud" advocated by the Korean right wing and greatly disappointed the far-right forces in South Korea, which may also be one of the important achievements of Lee Jae-myung's visit to the United States.

This foreign visit quickly took place, the in-depth interaction with Japan, and the welcome in the United States, etc., all kinds of "export to domestic sales" parts are equivalent to Li Zaiming's certificate of recognition by the American system, effectively hedging various opposition voices in South Korea.

On August 18-22 before Lee's visit, the South Korean poll agency Realmeter conducted the survey of 2,512 voters aged 18 and older in South Korea. The results showed that Lee's policy rating was 51.4%, 0.3 percentage points higher than the previous week's survey, and a three-week stop-down recovery; the gap rating was 44.9%, 0.4 percentage points higher than the previous survey; 3.7% of respondents answered "not good." It can be seen that the pre-heating of diplomacy has played a major boost, and this heat is likely to accompany Lee's success in the visit last several weeks, and successfully helped him spend the negative controversy brought by more than 800,000 people.

During the meeting, when asked whether to consider reducing the size of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, Trump said that since the United States and South Korea are "friends", he didn't want to talk more here. However, he pointed out that more than 40,000 U.S. troops (the actual size is 28,500) are currently stationed in South Korea. The South Korean side agreed to increase the share of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea during his first term, but during the Biden administration, this was raised. objection.

Related to this, Trump mentioned that South Korea did not transfer the land to the United States, but provided it by lease. Transfer and lease are completely different things. The United States has spent huge investments in building a base, and should consider whether the military base land lease contract signed by the two countries can be abolished and the South Korean side can transfer the ownership of the base land to the United States.

This seemingly casual topic actually has a profound foreshadowing. South Korea has always had its own considerations on the proportion of military spending for the U.S. military stationed in South Korea. During the Moon Jae-in administration, talks broke down many times with the U.S. government during Trump's first term. After Yoon Seok Yuet came to power, she has always regarded military spending issues as an important communication tool with Biden's Democratic government. After Trump was elected, the Biden administration entered a countdown and "renewed" the military spending agreement with two years to expire, seriously undermining Trump's campaign promises and long-cherished wishes.

In this regard, Trump has a profound resentment, even despite listing allies such as South Korea as sensitive countries, also during the Yinxiang coup, did not give any support. Now the old thing is repeated, one has never given up the "initial mind" of earning "allied tax", on the other hand, the so-called "US military base land ownership" issue, is a blow to the outside world, refusing the U.S. military "flexible deployment", refusing to open to the U.S. South Korean farm and livestock products market.

The conference as a whole was limited by time and occasions, and the substance was limited. Li was concerned about the "Zelensky moment" before his departure, and the issues of military presence, defence cooperation, etc. that the United States attaches great importance, were not deeply primary, rather than the head of the meeting, rather than a procedural and polite "bookbook."

When the two responded to reporters 'questions after the meeting, Trump said on the question of "whether there are plans to meet with Kim Jong Un this year and next","I have met with many people, so it's hard to say, but I hope it can be achieved this year. I maintain a good relationship with Kim Jong Un and look forward to meeting again."

Li said: ¡°There are few leaders in the world who are as concerned about global peace and have achieved substantial results as President Trump. If Trump plays the role of ¡®peacebuilder¡¯, I am willing to do my best to support him.¡±

This is not the first time Trump shouted Kim Jong-un as a South Korean face-to-face, in addition to meeting Kim Jong-un indeed contributed to his Nobel Prize dream, and the last meeting with Kim Jong-un was a major political success for Trump, North Korea's recent official statement can indeed be interpreted as not satisfied with interaction with South Korea, and requires the United States to bring out more negotiation codes to start a new round of dialogue.

Compared with the brief meeting of heads of state, Lee Jae-myung's systematic policy statements were mainly put in his speeches to think tanks.

Li delivered a speech at the Centre for International and Strategic Research (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. on May 25 (local time).

"The Republic of Korea is the only country liberated from colonization that has achieved industrialization and democratization at the same time," Lee said in his speech. But he added that "in the process of rapid economic growth known as the'miracle on the Han River ', and in the process of democratization against dictatorship, the support and cooperation of the United States has always been a huge force." This statement not only elevates South Korea's own positioning, but also underscores the history of domestic conservative groups. This statement is expected to be made a big fuss by the right wing in South Korea.

In addition to stationing troops and emphasizing that the United States and South Korea are military allies, economic allies, and green spaces for overseas investment, the core theme of the speech was that "China and the United States" were unsustainable.

Before the United States forcefully contained China and even adopted a blockade policy against China, the South Korean side did adhere to the "Anmei Economic and China" line. In recent years, the international community has undergone supply chain restructuring, and the US side has made clear its policy of containing China. As a result, South Korea can only act and make judgments within the basic policy framework of the US side.

But the U.S. and China form competitive and even confrontational relations, and cooperate in individual fields, is an undeniable fact. The two countries are geographically closer, and the Korean side is committed to properly addressing the inevitable problems between the two countries and safeguarding the bilateral relations. This relatively vague statement, both under the U.S. roof, has to be lowheaded, but also does not want to deal too badly with China at special nodes. Lee's so-called "practical diplomacy" so far has not been a very innovative theory.

The reason why the node is special is that August 24 is actually the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea. During Li Zaiming's few days in the United States, South Korea's presidential special envoy is in China. During the September 3rd military parade, South Korea will send the head of state-level National Assembly Speaker Yu Yuanzhi to watch the ceremony in China. This arrangement ostensibly avoids the increasingly narrow gap in Sino-US relations. In fact, it is a missed opportunity to rewrite South Korea's history. Small cleverness cannot solve big problems. After all, whether the South Korean president visits the United States or Japan first or China first has no real impact on China.

Dai Bing (left), China's Ambassador to South Korea, and Roh Jae-hsien, son of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo and chairman of the East Asian Cultural Center, visit Roh Tae-woo's Cemetery

Some time ago, Dai Bing, China's ambassador to South Korea, specially visited the tomb of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, accompanied by Roh Jae-hsion (Roh Tae-woo's son). Roh Jae-hyun was among the team sent by South Korea to visit China this time. To those South Korean friends who have made contributions to China-South Korea friendship, China has always "always believed their words, acted decisively, and repaid their kindness." History and the people will also have their own evaluations.