China's Korea policy: Change and continuity

This study fills a serious gap that exists in the literature on China's foreign policy--China's policy toward the two Koreas. It provides a detailed description of China's policy toward Korea in the twentieth century by focusing in each period on the objectives of China's policy, the means by which the objectives were pursued, and the most significant factors influencing the policy. Considerable attention is given to the late 1970s and 1980s, during which time the policy underwent a dramatic shift as China began to establish normal relations with South Korea. The major finding of the study is that two linkages have been most salient in shaping China's policy toward Korea, and appear to explain the simultaneous persistence of change and continuity, which characterizes China's foreign policy. The first linkage is between the changes in China's South Korea policy and China's domestic economic situation and external strategic environment. The second linkage is between the continuity in China's North Korea policy, and cultural and ideological factors that guide Beijing's decisions. This study indicates that both continuity and change are prominent patterns of China's Korea policy. The decision of the Chinese leadership in the early 1980s to deal with its major economic and security concerns by articulating a new "two Koreas" policy marks a qualitative as well as quantitative change in China's foreign policy behavior. At the same time, China's efforts to maintain good relations with North Korea results from the historical, cultural, and ideological affinities that have long been present between these two countries. From a Chinese perspective, the world is always divided into a dichotomy between "us" and "them," and North Korea is still one of "us" to the leaders of China.