中文
By Danny Haiphong
President of South Korea Yoon Suk-yeol began a week-long state visit to the U.S. from April 24 to April 29. U.S. foreign policy experts have hyped the trip as an example of the Biden administration's ongoing attempt to strengthen its "trust and deterrence" strategy in the Asia Pacific against China. Yoon's visit is thus no standard diplomatic venture but rather an exercise in hegemony and damage control.
On April 23, just a day before Yoon's trip, Financial Times reported that the U.S. urged South Korea to not fill any market gap in China if Beijing bans a Washington's memory chipmaker from selling chips. That is obviously an act that impairs South Korea's economic sovereignty, intervenes internal affairs of South Korea, violates international trade rules and demonstrates U.S.'s hegemony.
Yoon's trip is coming amid an unstable period for U.S.-South Korea relations as shown by the following two facts. On the one hand, Yoon's conservative government has placed a priority on developing warm relations with the U.S. Yoon has bolstered military ties with the U.S. in its ongoing row with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). From March 13 to March 23, the U.S. and South Korea held their largest joint military drills in five years. Yoon has placed the issue high on the agenda for the summit and is set to bring a delegation of over 100 business executives in a signal that South Korea is prepared to strengthen economic relations with the U.S. as well.
On the other hand, South Korea is the clear subordinate in its bilateral relationship with the U.S. Yoon has taken a controversial stance on recent leaked Pentagon documents that revealed that the U.S. spied on senior South Korean officials as they mulled over the prospects of sending weaponry to Ukraine. The Yoon government has maintained that much of the documents were fabricated and that the U.S. had no malicious intent in its intelligence gathering. This position has been characterized as "humiliating diplomacy" by opposition parties in South Korea and has exacerbated unrest over other issues such as the lack of accountability on Japanese firms that participated in forced labor within the country during World War II, as well as the growing public discontent with the nation's ailing economy.
Much of South Korea's economic woes are attributed to a ballooning trade deficit that has its roots in the U.S. ban on semiconductor technology exports to China. China comprised of nearly 40 percent of South Korea's chip exports prior to the ban's enforcement last year. Since Biden's export ban, South Korea has seen exports halve as of January 2023. This has exacerbated macroeconomic pressure from inflation. Some experts have predicted that South Korea is headed toward an economic crisis as U.S. monetary tightening continues to place downward pressure on South Korea's won.
Yoon's visit is yet another exercise in the U.S.'s ongoing effort to "contain" China and expand its hegemony in the Asia Pacific region at the expense of the so-called allies. The U.S. hopes to strengthen its military relationship with nations like South Korea and Japan while seeking assurances from these governments that they will loyally follow the U.S. in its destructive escalations against China. Yoon's visit is also an exercise in damage control meant to assure both the people of South Korea and the region that subordination to the U.S. can indeed bring benefits.
While both the U.S. and South Korea have an agenda, it is clear that the U.S. is the party dictating the terms of the relationship. President Yoon demonstrated this dynamic when he told U.S. media that China's Taiwan region is a "global issue" in the lead up to his state visit. Such an act of appeasement to the U.S.'s ongoing violations of the one-China principle indicates that South Korea is a willing partner in the U.S. interference in China's internal affairs. South Korea is hedging its bets that a political alignment with the U.S. hegemonic aims will secure a more favorable position at the negotiating table during the visit.
Unfortunately, this gamble offers no prize to South Korea. The U.S. hostility to China has only hurt South Korea's long-term economic interests. Political subordination to U.S. diktats has only led to embarrassment and further damage to the legitimacy of South Korea's ruling leadership. South Korea has much more to gain by bolstering ties with China and balancing its diplomatic relations.
In 2022, South Korea's direct investment with China soared 44.5 percent. China and South Korea possess complementary economies and have a large role to play in facilitating a new Asian century through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and other multilateral mechanisms.
The U.S. is using diplomacy with South Korea and the region at large to undermine sovereignty around the world with the explicit goal of isolating China. While this agenda is marked by failure as China continues to gain prestige with the global majority, South Korean President's state visit should be a lesson that the fruits of U.S. hegemony are sour for those who choose to follow its destructive path.
Danny Haiphong is an independent journalist and researcher in the United States. He is a contributing editor to the Black Agenda Report, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China and founding member of the No Cold War international campaign.
