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Graphic by Kim Jae-wook

Chinese President Xi Jinping surprised many by visiting an LG Display factory last week. Amidst unease in South Korea-China relations over South Korea’s growing coziness with the US and Japan, and its soaring trade deficit with China, Xi spent around an hour at the LG Display production base in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, and reportedly made comments that emphasized South Korea-China friendship.

It is very rare for Xi, who has been campaigning for “technological self-reliance,” to visit a factory run by a foreign company, and it is the first time he has visited a South Korean company’s factory in China.

The most important signal Xi intended to send with his visit was that he has no intention of reversing China’s “reforms and openness,” so foreign companies should feel free to invest. During his tour of the LG Display plant, Xi related his hope that foreign investors “will seize the opportunity and come to China, cultivate the Chinese market, and tap the potential of the Chinese market to secure new success in their development,” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Xi’s top priority this year is economic recovery following three years of its “zero-COVID” policy disaster. His visit to Guangdong, a symbol of China’s reforms and openness, is intended to persuade foreign investors who have grown skeptical of his policies centered on state-owned enterprises and self-reliance.

“China’s reform and opening-up policy will remain unchanged over the long term and the country will never close its door to the world,” Xi reiterated, according to the People’s Daily, which reported on his visit.

The choice to visit a South Korean factory was also a calculated move. In the month since the start of Xi’s third term, Beijing has been rallying allies that challenge the American order, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Brazil, and bringing the leaders of Spain and France and the foreign ministers of Japan and Germany to Beijing for talks.

There is an intense effort to rally countries sympathetic to a Sino-Russian-led “multipolar system” and to create cracks in the US alliance. The shadow of the tributary system, under which the Chinese empires granted differential economic benefits to their vassal states based on their status, is also looming large.

Where does Korea fit into that scenario?

In late March, Xi Jinping hosted two pillars of South Korea’s semiconductor industry: Lee Jae-yong, chairman of the Samsung Group, and Chey Tae-won, chairman of the SK Group. And now Xi has visited a South Korean factory.

China’s state-run China Central Television has also published a series of reports about Korean companies.

This suggests that China is seeking to influence South Korea through its corporations rather than the Korean government, which keeps harping about “trilateral cooperation” with the US and Japan.

It also means that China is doing everything it can to enlist Korean companies in its campaign to break through the US blockade on cutting-edge technology.

We shouldn’t expect a return to the “good old days” when Korean companies vied for first and second place in the Chinese market.

Nevertheless, it’s more important than ever for Korea to adopt a strategy of improving relations with China and finding more opportunities for cooperation.

Facing these Chinese overtures, it’s time to determine China’s exact intentions and ensure our actions are informed by knowledge of ourselves and our rivals.

By Park Min-hee, editorial writer

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]