South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said in a recent interview with Reuters that mounting tensions around Taiwan were due to attempts to change the “status quo” by force, and that South Korea and the global community opposed such attempts.
“The Taiwan issue is not simply an issue between China and Taiwan, but like the issue of North Korea, it is a global issue,” Yoon said.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) fired back: “Those playing with fire on Taiwan will get themselves burned.”
Unfazed, South Korea summoned China’s ambassador to Seoul to dispute Beijing’s rude comments and diplomatic discourtesy.
For the past decade, regardless of who was president of South Korea, whether it was Moon Jae-in, Park Geun-hye or Lee Myung-bak, its foreign policy always centered on the reinforcement of the strategic alliance between South Korea and the US, while regarding North Korea as its main military threat. As for its China policy, the former leaders respected the “one China” principle, worked with China to promote regional peace and stability, and strengthened economic ties with Beijing.
However, things took a turn with China’s and North Korea’s muscle-flexing last year. China launched military exercises in six zones around Taiwan in August last year after a visit to Taipei by then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, and North Korea’s increasing missile launches and military activities, so South Korea shifted its military strategy and its China policy.
The most apparent change was South Korea making amends with Japan after years of hostilities, in the hope that the two could unite to counter North Korea’s nuclear threat. The summit in Tokyo in March, which Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called a “big step” to rebuilding the two nations’ security and economic ties, shows the magnitude of the shift.
Yoon’s administration is stepping up cooperation with Japan and the US to put a lid on North Korea’s rising nuclear threats and China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region, which has unnerved South Korea.
A survey by the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University showed that the number of people who consider China a threat to the Korean Peninsula rose to 44 percent last year from 14.6 percent in 2008.
The Asian Institute for Policy Studies published a survey in December last year that indicated a staggering 66.3 percent of South Koreans believe that China’s development will negatively affect their nation.
China’s mounting quasi-invasion activities with aircraft carriers and warplanes have not only undermined stability in the Indo-Pacific region, but also pose a threat to South Korea’s national security.
With this year marking the 70th anniversary of the US-South Korea alliance, US President Joe Biden and Yoon at a news conference at the White House in Washington on Wednesday last week reiterated “the importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the region,” and strongly opposed any unilateral attempts to change the “status quo” in the Indo-Pacific region.
Yoon’s statement that the “Taiwan issue is a global issue” should be a consensus recognized by the global community. Not only does it demonstrate South Korea’s strategic vision, it also opposes and knocks down Beijing’s preposterous argument of classifying Taiwan as an internal issue and underscores the global strategic significance behind the notion.
Yao Chung-yuan is an adjunct professor and former deputy director of the Ministry of National Defense’s strategic planning department.
Translated by Rita Wang
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