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By Li Min
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's six-day state visit to the U.S. is drawing to a close. In the sight of the ruling party of the Republic of Korea (ROK), Yoon's trip has scored some fruit. However, there is a load of skeptical and critical voices in South Korea.
Lee Jae-myung, the head of the Democratic Party of Korea, also the strongest political rival of Yoon Suk-yeol, regards Yoon's trip to the U.S. as "global hogang diplomacy"(hogang is a Korean buzzword, which means stupid customer), pointing out that Yoon failed to protect South Korean companies from CHIPS and Science Act and The Inflation Reduction Act(IRA), which are made by the U.S. for its own narrow-interest. Lee also criticized Yoon for saying "OK" to allegations of eavesdropping contained in recently leaked Pentagon documents.
Yoon's erroneous comments on the Battle of Lake Changjin and the Taiwan question were seen by many as a direct attack on China. His anti-Chinese provocations will undoubtedly hurt China-South Korea relations and further complicate the situation on the peninsula.
Shin Jin-wook, a professor of sociology at Chung-Ang University in Soeul, South Korea, accused Yoon Se-yue of successively triggering international issues in diplomacy after taking office, making South Korea a "new Cold War promoter" of the Korean Peninsula, East Asia, and even the whole world.
Although the achievements of Yoon's visit to the U.S. are more or less controversial, one thing is clear: South Korea's diplomacy is becoming more and more value-oriented. Address to a joint session of U.S. Congress was the highlight of Yoon's trip. In this speech with the title "Alliance of Freedom, Alliance in Action," Yoon retrospected how South Korea fought for "freedom" side by side with America against "communist totalitarian nations." Within 43 minutes, Yoon mentioned "freedom" 46 times, even more than in his inauguration speech, in which "freedom" was mentioned 35 times.
The problem does not lie in freedom itself. As we all know, freedom is one of the common values of humanity, Chinese President Xi also said "We should vigorously advocate peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom, which are the common values of humanity, and work together to provide the right guiding philosophy for building a better world."
Problem is that the notion "freedom" is often misused to labels countries as "good" and "bad," which can lead to its use as a tool for bloc politics. The importance of values is not in question, but value-oriented diplomacy is not beneficial. It can make a country observe the world through "righteous or evil" view, and easily lead to an "all-in with one side" style in foreign policies, cutting down options in international relations.
The Korean peninsula was deeply affected by that kind of diplomacy in history. One of the typical examples is that, in the mid 19th century when Heungseon Daewongun, the policymaker of the time, had to decide to open up to the world or not. In the cases, value-oriented diplomacy played negative roles in the national interests of Chosun Dynasty.
However, we should not neglect another tradition in Korean history of diplomacy, named "balance of power," and some of the ROK presidents can be regarded as masters in conducting that diplomatic philosophy. It is unwise for the ROK administration to abandon such precious heritage.
There are many reasons for ROK to strengthen cooperation with the U.S., but a prudent approach towards some concepts, such as the "Alliance of Freedom," is also needed. The U.S., indeed, is a country that emphasizes values a lot, but it always act to maximize its own benefits.
Syngman Rhee, the first president of ROK, had a deep understanding of that. As a young man, Rhee was a steadfast worshiper of America. Nevertheless his perception of the U.S. changed remarkably after he knew the existence of the so-called Taft–Katsura Agreement (1905), through which America affirmed Japan's colonial rule over Korea. After that, Rhee remained a pro-American politician, but he learned how to lead the Korean-American relationship in a realistic way and maximize benefits for ROK.
63 years have passed since Syngman Rhee resigned from his post, and a new generation of South Korea wishes to see their country treated equally and practice an independent foreign policy that is devoid of alignment, great power competition, and bloc politics. If the Yoon Suk-yeol administration continues with its value-oriented diplomacy and bows down to the U.S., South Koreans are left to see their country losing more diplomatic autonomy.
This First Voice article is written by CGTN Special Commentator Li Min, assistant research fellow of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies, China Institute for International Studies.
