South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has called for a “new phase” in relations with China during talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, as Seoul seeks to reset bilateral ties amid regional security tensions and economic priorities.
Lee met Xi on Monday as part of a four-day state visit to China, the first by a South Korean leader since 2019. His agenda includes regional security issues, trade cooperation, and efforts to ease China’s long-standing unofficial restrictions on South Korean popular culture. He is scheduled to meet China’s premier, Li Qiang, and parliament chairman Zhao Leji on Tuesday.
Resetting Strained Bilateral Relations
The visit follows years of strained relations under Lee’s predecessor, former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached and had taken a strongly critical stance toward Beijing. Lee said the current trip represents “a crucial opportunity” for the full-scale restoration of South Korea–China relations, according to South Korean newspaper Chosun.
Government officials and companies from both countries signed cooperation agreements covering technology, trade, and environmental initiatives. Lee also shared photos on X of himself taking selfies with Xi using a Xiaomi smartphone that Xi had given him the previous year.
Xi said during the meeting that the international environment is becoming increasingly turbulent and complex. China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that Xi urged Lee to make what he described as correct strategic choices and to stand on what he called the right side of history.
Regional Dynamics And Japan Factor
The meeting comes as Beijing seeks to strengthen regional partnerships amid tensions with Japan. South Korea, like Japan, is a security ally of the United States while maintaining deep trade ties with China, placing Seoul in a delicate diplomatic position.
Park Seung-chan, a professor of China studies at Yongin University, told the BBC that Xi’s eagerness to meet Lee reflects pressure on China to secure regional partners. He said Beijing’s underlying expectation is that South Korea distance itself from Japan, even as Seoul aims to maintain working relationships with both neighbors.
Lee is expected to visit Japan later this month to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who has drawn criticism from Beijing after suggesting that Japan could deploy self-defense forces in response to a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
Security And North Korea
Security on the Korean Peninsula was also discussed. Lee has sought renewed diplomatic engagement with North Korea, though progress has been limited. He has emphasized the need for China’s cooperation in encouraging North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to abandon nuclear weapons, given Beijing’s economic and diplomatic influence over Pyongyang.
Lee said on Monday that South Korea would work with China on viable alternatives for peace on the peninsula. The discussions followed missile activity by North Korea, including ballistic missile launches reported by South Korea’s military on Sunday and hypersonic missile tests announced by Pyongyang’s state media on Monday.
China has pledged to maintain what Xi has called its traditional friendship with North Korea, raising questions about how far Beijing will support Seoul’s efforts.
Cultural And Economic Issues
Another priority for Lee is easing China’s unofficial restrictions on South Korean entertainment content. Korean pop music and television dramas have been largely inaccessible on Chinese platforms for about a decade, a situation widely linked to South Korea’s 2016 deployment of a U.S. missile defense system that China opposed.
At a Korea–China business forum on Sunday, Lee encouraged deeper cooperation in beauty products, food, films, and music. South Korea’s presidential spokesperson said the two leaders agreed to discuss the gradual expansion of cultural exchanges, without providing details.
Lee said before South Korean residents in Beijing that the visit would mark a new starting point to normalize and upgrade relations between the two countries.
Featured image credits: PM Official Photographer via Wikimedia Commons
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