South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung to meet China’s Xi

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is preparing to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who is trying to reset frayed ties with his country’s largest trading partner.

Regional security and Beijing’s unofficial ban on Korean popular culture are also on the agenda for Monday’s meeting, the second summit since November when Xi visited South Korea.

Given what a vital economic partner China is, experts say Lee is seeking assurances that he won’t weaponize that relationship in the face of political tensions in the region.

For weeks, China and Japan have been in a diplomatic spat over China’s assertion of Taiwan’s self-rule, putting Seoul, a major regional power, in a difficult position.

Beijing has stepped up its rhetoric against Japan after its prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, suggested in parliament that Tokyo could respond with its own self-defense force if China attacked Taiwan.

Therefore, visiting Beijing during this period is an important move for Lee. Like Japan, South Korea is an ally of the United States, which supports Taiwan and provides weapons for its defense.

Lee, who arrived in Beijing on Sunday, will attend a banquet hosted by Xi on Monday. He will then meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and parliament speaker Zhao Leji before flying to Shanghai.

Speaking before Korean residents in Beijing, Lee said his visit “will serve as a new starting point to bridge the gaps in Korea-China relations, normalize them and elevate them to a new level.”

This is the first visit by a South Korean leader since 2019. Relations soured due to the ouster of Lee’s predecessor, former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was highly critical of China.

Park Seung-chan, professor of Chinese studies at Yongin University, told the BBC that Xi’s eagerness to meet Lee, on the other hand, signaled the pressure he faces to find a regional ally.

“China may be out of the woods, but its demand is clear: stand with China and condemn Japan.”

Mr. Park said Beijing was drawing on the two countries’ history of joint struggle against Japan in the 20th century. Lee is expected to hold a memorial ceremony in Shanghai for activists who fought for Korean independence from Japan.

Mr. Park added that Korea wants to “strengthen its relations with both Japan and China” while “continuing to show all respect towards China.”

Seoul has long walked a diplomatic tightrope between Beijing and Tokyo. Lee is reportedly planning to visit Japan to meet Takaichi later this month. And on Friday, South Korea’s national security director, Wi Sung-lac, told reporters that the country “respects the One China policy”; this is Beijing’s diplomatic acknowledgment that it is the only Chinese government.

Wi told reporters that the security of the Korean Peninsula would also be part of the talks with China.

Lee has attempted to engage with North Korea diplomatically but so far little progress has been made. China needs cooperation to pressure North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons. Apart from Russia, Beijing is the dictator’s biggest supporter economically and diplomatically.

“China is a very important cooperation partner in moving towards peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula,” Lee said Sunday. he said.

Earlier in the day, Seoul’s military said Pyongyang had fired ballistic missiles off its east coast. And on Monday, the North’s state news agency said the country was testing hypersonic missiles to assess their deterrence capabilities in the wake of recent developments, citing the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.

It is not yet clear how much pressure Lee can push China against North Korea. In September, Xi vowed to strengthen Beijing’s “traditional friendship” with Pyongyang.

And Seoul and Beijing are not natural allies.

US troops have been stationed in South Korea for decades to guard against an attack from the North, and last year the two sides agreed to cooperate on building nuclear-powered submarines. The announcement sparked warnings from China.

There are other troubling points, too, such as China’s decade-long unofficial restrictions on South Korean music and dramas. K-pop and K-dramas are either unavailable or difficult to access on Chinese media platforms.

Although China has never acknowledged the ban on Korean artists, it is believed to be a protest against South Korea’s 2016 decision to deploy a US anti-missile system, which China sees as a threat to its military operations in the region.

Persuading Beijing to lift these restrictions is said to be high on Lee’s agenda. China is a huge market for the Korean entertainment industry, which is already a huge global success.

Lee will also seek to stop China from building naval structures in the waters between the two countries. Beijing says the structures are fish farming equipment, but they have raised safety concerns in Seoul.