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Xi Jinping charms Moon Jae-in as China and US compete for an ally in South Korea
- Leaders of China and South Korea agree to boost ties and reschedule visit by Xi Jinping in first phone exchange in eight months
- Move seen as a ‘charm offensive’ by Beijing to thwart plans by Joe Biden administration to engage Seoul in an anti-China alliance of democracies
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed on Tuesday to “promote high-level exchanges” between the two countries in a development likely to be greatly scrutinised by Western powers seeking to draw Seoul into an “alliance of democracies” against Beijing.
In a late night 40-minute discussion that was the first phone exchange between the two leaders in eight months, Xi and Moon also agreed to reschedule a visit by Xi to Seoul that was postponed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic and to work out a “blueprint for the development of bilateral ties over next three decades”, said Kang Min-seok, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House in Seoul.
The two leaders vowed to boost people-to-people and economic exchanges, cooperate in the fight against Covid-19 and work towards resolving the stand-off over North Korea’s nuclear programme. Moon asked for China to take a “constructive role” on North Korea, while Xi expressed support for both inter-Korean dialogue and talks between the United States and Pyongyang.
“China attaches importance to South Korea’s roles in resolving [the North Korea issue] politically,” Xi said, according to Kang.
The phone call comes amid efforts by some Western countries, led by the new administration of President Joe Biden in the United States, to build an alliance of democracies to counter China’s growing clout. Some experts saw the phone call as part of a “charm offensive” by China aimed at thwarting these efforts.
Professor Park Won-gon, of Handong Global University, said China was reaching out to South Korea as the Biden administration was expected to continue with Washington’s hard-line stance against China, although with more “subtlety” than Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump.
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