South Korean President Lee Jae-myung’s upcoming trip to China from January 4-7 – including a summit and state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping – will mark the first state visit to China by an incumbent South Korean president in six years. This follows Xi’s visit to Gyeongju for the APEC summit on October 31, his first trip to South Korea in 11 years. Prior to that, there had not been a presidential visit by either side since former President Moon Jae-in attended the 8th Korea-Japan-China Summit in Chengdu on December 24, 2019.

The prolonged absence of top-level visits reflects the strain in bilateral relations over the past decade. The freeze in China-South Korea relations stemmed from the deep-rooted discord dating back to 2017, when Seoul deployed the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and was met with economic retaliation from Beijing. 

Ties appear to be thawing under Lee. He seeks to restore relations with China, given Beijing’s leverage over Pyongyang on the North Korean nuclear issue. In light of China’s omission of the phrase “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” in its recent white paper on nonproliferation, Lee’s upcoming state visit will serve as a litmus test to ascertain the extent to which Beijing is willing to cooperate “to bring North Korea to the inter-Korean dialogue table,” as Foreign Minister Cho Hyun stated. 

However, as Beijing has raised concerns over Seoul’s decision to build nuclear-powered submarines in partnership with Washington, Lee will need to engage with tact and astute diplomacy to avoid a second “THAAD dispute.”

The groundwork for the China-South Korea summit in Beijing was laid earlier as First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo met with his Chinese counterpart, Executive Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, at the 11th Korea-China Vice Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue on........

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