6 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
New South Korea leader faces tightrope act between US alliance, stronger China ties
Hours after Lee Jae-myung was sworn in as the president of South Korea early on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping extended a congratulatory message, emphasising that China placed 'great importance' on strengthening ties with its neighbour amid an increasingly uncertain global landscape.
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During his campaign, Lee pledged to repair strained ties with China and North Korea and underscored China's role as a vital trading partner.
Analysts predicted more stable
China-South Korea relations to come, saying Lee's foreign policy would be marked by 'pragmatism', flexibility and economic urgency – a departure from former president Yoon Suk-yeol, who steered the country to align more with the United States.
However, diplomatic observers also cautioned that any improvement might be constrained by South Korea's delicate position within two 'triangles': the China-South Korea-Japan dynamic and the South Korea-Japan-US alliance.
They said his ambition to maintain a balanced approach between Beijing and Washington would still be tested.
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Da Zhigang, researcher at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said Lee was likely to seek a more 'balanced and flexible' approach to China that pursued South Korean domestic interests, compared with Yoon's more ideological and nationalistic approach.
