Beijing No Longer Hated : South Korea, China Ties Grow Closer

Koreans living under communism were portrayed in a remarkably positive manner in a recent South Korean television show. The region that was shown was much poorer than South Korea, but the people were cheerful and seemed to be enjoying life. Foreign guests were entertained with folk songs at a Korean family’s home, and there were glimpses of enthusiastic students at school.

“North Korea must be a lot like this,” commented a Seoul camera shop manager, who had a television set in his shop tuned to the program.

But the program was not about North Korea, a bitterly feared enemy with a powerful army deployed only 30 miles north of Seoul. Such a sympathetic broadcast about North Korea is still inconceivable here.

No Longer Hated, Feared

The program was about China, with the focus on the large ethnic Korean population on China’s side of the border with North Korea. Chinese troops fought alongside North Koreans against South Korean and U.N. forces in the 1950-53 Korean War. But China is no longer hated and feared here.

Instead, China is increasingly viewed as a potential friend. South Korea, while still fervently anti-Communist in its domestic politics and its view of the north, has put aside its ideological reservations and seems to be riding a wave of optimism about China.

There are, in fact, widespread hopes--among South Korean businessmen, leaders of the ruling and opposition parties and ordinary people--that relations with their giant Asian neighbor can be gradually normalized, with resulting benefits for the nation’s economy and security.

“I’ve never heard of anyone opposing it,” said a top executive of one of South Korea’s large business conglomerates, who spoke on condition that he not be identified.

‘Situation Changed’

“During Mao Tse-tung’s time, China, North Korea and the Soviet Union were equally enemies to us,” he said. “But after (China’s senior leader) Deng Xiaoping, China is turning to a capitalistic approach, and the national security situation is changed also. Suppose (North Korean leader) Kim Il Sung would like to attack South Korea. I think China would oppose it--not only oppose it, but they might help us to fight back. We feel like that.”

The expected participation of China and the Soviet Union in this year’s Summer Olympics at Seoul is one cause for South Korea’s new mood. Assistant Foreign Minister Park Soo Gil said last month that the Olympics could serve as a catalyst to bring South Korea and China closer together.

South Korea’s President-elect Roh Tae Woo has expressed hope that China and South Korea will open trade offices in each other’s capital after the Olympics, and he has said he will try to establish diplomatic relations during his five-year term.

Roh has promised to promote the development of port facilities and industry in the Cholla region of southwestern South Korea, with an eye toward direct trade with China across the Yellow Sea. Ships can leave here in the morning and reach some Chinese ports that evening.

Residents of the Cholla region have long felt discriminated against by the government, which for 27 years has been largely controlled by people--including Roh--from the rival Kyongsang region in the southeast. Roh’s pledge to promote China trade through Cholla ports thus can be seen as part of his effort to bring about national reconciliation after the bitterness of the recent presidential election, which was influenced by regional antagonisms.

Interest in Chinese language courses is booming. Corporations are training employees in Chinese, and more university students want to study the language. The Korea Times, in a recent article about this phenomenon, quoted the head of a Seoul language school as saying that Chinese-language enrollment nearly tripled in 1987.

Trade Via Hong Kong

The most concrete evidence of growing ties is the burgeoning indirect trade through Hong Kong. According to Hong Kong government statistics, trade between South Korea and China via the British colony totaled $940 million in the first 10 months of 1987, up 83% over the same period of 1986, exceeding trade between China and North Korea, which according to Chinese government statistics totaled $500 million in 1986 and was up only slightly in the first half of 1987.

Businessmen in Seoul say that a large volume of trade also is being conducted secretly by ships that ply directly between South Korean and Chinese ports. Estimates for the size of this trade vary widely.

Also, it is unclear how much of the trade showing up in Hong Kong statistics may go through the colony on paper only; the goods may actually be shipped directly between South Korea and China. This is possible, according to Seoul businessmen, because the Hong Kong statistics are based on shipping documents used to handle payments, rather than on customs inspections.

$1.5 Billion in Trade

“According to our research, direct South Korean exports to China probably amounted to about $1.5 billion in 1987,” a Korean company official who specializes in China-related matters said, speaking on the condition that he not be further identified. “South Korean vessels registered in third countries are leaving South Korean ports and calling at Chinese ports.”

Much of this secret trade, he added, involves components for consumer products such as television sets and refrigerators.

“China doesn’t like to import the whole product, so they import components,” he said. “Economically, they can save money by using their own cheap labor, and politically it is better for them because with the whole product it would be obvious where it came from, and they don’t want that.”

China’s exports to South Korea are dominated by raw materials and agricultural products, such as coal and natural fibers, he said, adding, “I would guess they’re now directly shipping about $1 billion worth of exports per year to South Korea.”

Chinese Coal Exports Up

A Hong Kong magazine, The Nineties, which deals with Chinese affairs, reported this month that South Korea has already become the second-largest market, after Japan, for Chinese coal exports.

Another business executive involved in trade with China estimated total South Korea-China trade for 1987--including trade passing through Hong Kong, goods documented in Hong Kong but actually shipped directly, and items shipped directly that do not appear in Hong Kong statistics--at about $1.3 billion.

South Korean corporations are also becoming active inside China. Minister of Trade and Industry Na Ung Pae told the National Assembly in October that South Koreans are taking part in trade fairs in China and that the government is promoting the exchange of important business representatives between the two countries.

The chairman of at least one of South Korea’s business conglomerates has made several trips to China, and numerous presidents of companies within various conglomerates have visited China on business, according to Korean businessmen in Seoul who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.

Separate Visas

These trips are made on South Korean passports, but rather than having Chinese visas stamped in the passports, businessmen have their visas issued as separate documents. This procedure--usually handled in Hong Kong, where many South Korean companies have representative offices--also has been used by China for visitors from other countries with which it has no diplomatic relations.

“Everyone is guessing as to what the others are doing,” one businessman said, “but my guess is that every major company of South Korea has made offers to China, and many of them are doing business now.”

Turning this quiet trade and investment into something open and official poses a tricky diplomatic challenge to both countries, because North Korea, which maintains friendly ties with China and the Soviet Union, opposes any great improvement in ties between China and South Korea.

Leverage on Beijing

North Korea has leverage on Beijing, a Western diplomat in Seoul commented, because China fears that ignoring North Korea’s objections might prompt it to “tilt too far into the Soviet orbit--and more specifically that the Soviets would be granted base rights or permission to station military forces in North Korea that could threaten China.”

Hu Qili, one of the five members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the top policy-making body of the Chinese Communist Party, touched on the issue of North Korea’s views when interviewed in November by a newspaper delegation from Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the leading economic journal.

Will China refuse to trade directly with South Korea if there is no consent from North Korea? Hu was asked.

“If North Korea agrees,” he replied, “of course direct trade can be pursued. But this precondition has not been met, so it is difficult to answer.”

Support for Stability

The Japanese newspaper reported that this comment came in the context of expressions of Chinese support for stability on the Korean Peninsula.

South Koreans hoping for improved relations with China considered Hu’s comment an encouraging signal aimed at both South and North Korea.

The Korea Times said in an editorial that Hu’s statement was “quite progressive and forward-looking” and “obviously indicative of foreign policy directions China is pursuing to open its doors internationally.”

Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, responding to a request from Roh, said last month that he would be willing to encourage China to respond to South Korea’s overtures. According to reports in the Japanese media, Takeshita is expected to take up the subject with Roh when he attends the Feb. 25 presidential inauguration in Seoul and with Chinese leaders this summer when he visits Beijing.

Security at Stake

Although improved South Korea-China relations would increase competition for Japanese corporations doing business with China, Japan has a great security interest in seeing a relaxation of tension on the Korean Peninsula. Because Japan is a neighbor and has diplomatic relations with both South Korea and China, it is in a natural position to play some role as a go-between.

It was through cooperation with a Japanese firm that the state-run television network, Korean Broadcasting System, was able to broadcast the documentary on Koreans in China, according to Kim Sung Mook, a KBS assistant manager. The Korean network planned the project, beginning in 1982, and paid for it, but had to enlist the Japanese firm to do the filming in China, he said. It took four years to make the arrangements and get the permission of the South Korean and Chinese governments, he said.

“Officially, of course, the program was filmed by a Japanese team,” Kim said. “But the Chinese authorities were aware of the fact that it was a South Korean-sponsored program. In that sense, it was very significant. It is our understanding that China and South Korea will pursue things of mutual interest if they can avoid diplomatic problems.”