Sitthiphon Kruarattikan. China’s Korea Policy in the Era of Reform, 1978-1992. Dissertation for M.A. Pacific Asian Studies, SOAS, University of London, 2003.
China’s Korea Policy in the Era of Reform, 1978-1992, Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
The dissertation examines the reasons for China’s decision to normalise its diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992. It argues that the normalisation was based chiefly on economic consideration. The end of Maoist era and the rise of Deng Xiaoping led to the emphasis on economic reform. The new Chinese leadership saw South Korea as a source of capital and technology, and a model of economic development but, due to the Sino-Soviet conflict and the Tiananmen incident, they could not abandon a strategically and politically important North Korea by normalising its relations with South Korea in the 1980s. By the beginning of the 1990s, however, there were several factors that favoured the establishment of Sino-South Korean diplomatic relations. The end of the Cold War was responsible for the Asianisation of Chinese foreign policy. In addition, the de-escalation of inter-Korean tensions, Deng Xiaoping’s reemphasis on economic reform after the Tiananmen incident, Taiwan’s diplomacy, and the Sino-American trade disputes precipitated the normalisation. However, China’s diplomacy toward Pyongyang during the process of normalisation implied the importance of North Korea to China in the post-normalisation era.
The dissertation examines the reasons for China’s decision to normalise its diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992. It argues that the normalisation was based chiefly on economic consideration. The end of Maoist era and the rise of Deng Xiaoping led to the emphasis on economic reform. The new Chinese leadership saw South Korea as a source of capital and technology, and a model of economic development but, due to the Sino-Soviet conflict and the Tiananmen incident, they could not abandon a strategically and politically important North Korea by normalising its relations with South Korea in the 1980s. By the beginning of the 1990s, however, there were several factors that favoured the establishment of Sino-South Korean diplomatic relations. The end of the Cold War was responsible for the Asianisation of Chinese foreign policy. In addition, the de-escalation of inter-Korean tensions, Deng Xiaoping’s reemphasis on economic reform after the Tiananmen incident, Taiwan’s diplomacy, and the Sino-American trade disputes precipitated the normalisation. However, China’s diplomacy toward Pyongyang during the process of normalisation implied the importance of North Korea to China in the post-normalisation era.
Introduction
Northeast Asia was one of the regions in which the Cold War became a hot one. In the Korean War (1950-1953), the People’s Republic of China (PRC, hereafter China) dispatched a million of troops to protect the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, hereafter North Korea) against the United States of America and its allies. The war that lasted for three years strengthened the Sino-North Korean relations. Thus, the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Republic of Korea (ROK, hereafter South Korea) on August 24, 1992 was a new phenomenon in Northeast Asian international relations. Enmity between the two countries which had confronted with each other during the Korean War and the Cold War came to an end. China who had declared that North Korea was the sole legitimate state of Korea finally recognised South Korea. It is therefore interesting to consider the factors that were responsible for the change from “one-Korea” to “two-Koreas” policy.
Northeast Asia was one of the regions in which the Cold War became a hot one. In the Korean War (1950-1953), the People’s Republic of China (PRC, hereafter China) dispatched a million of troops to protect the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, hereafter North Korea) against the United States of America and its allies. The war that lasted for three years strengthened the Sino-North Korean relations. Thus, the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Republic of Korea (ROK, hereafter South Korea) on August 24, 1992 was a new phenomenon in Northeast Asian international relations. Enmity between the two countries which had confronted with each other during the Korean War and the Cold War came to an end. China who had declared that North Korea was the sole legitimate state of Korea finally recognised South Korea. It is therefore interesting to consider the factors that were responsible for the change from “one-Korea” to “two-Koreas” policy.
The author wants to examine why China normalised its relations with South Korea, and given the fact that China’s unofficial relations with South Korea began in the late 1970s, what retarded the normalisation until 1992. The dissertation argues that economic reform after 1978 led to China’s economic relations with South Korea. However, China’s security and political concerns retarded the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea until 1992.
The structure of this dissertation is as follows. The first chapter studies the reasons for China’s decision to have economic relations with South Korea since the late 1970s. The second chapter examines the obstacles for the establishment of the Sino-South Korean diplomatic relations in the 1980s. The last chapter considers the external and domestic factors that facilitated the normalisation in the early 1990s.
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