Three Asian partners reshape their ties

Visitors check out a Hyundai car at the Shanghai Auto Show last year. South Korea surpassed Japan last year to become China's biggest source of imports. CHINA DAILY

South Korea is quickly overtaking Japan as China's regional trading partner of choice

Even as China, South Korea and Japan held the fourth round of talks in Seoul earlier this month for a trilateral trade treaty, some changes in the web of relationships linking the countries were developing under the radar.

One key change was that South Korea surpassed Japan last year to become China's biggest source of imports.

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China's consumer boom and economic restructuring mean it needs mechanical and electronic goods, which are South Korea's major products. And China-Japan trade continues to be affected by prolonged territorial disputes and political tensions.

Both countries, which offer similar products and technologies, are battling for their share of the world's largest market.

In early March, South Korea reported that it had posted a trade surplus for 25 consecutive months as exports continued to grow.

Exports to China, South Korea's largest trading partner, increased 8.6 percent last year to $183.07 billion (132 billion euros), according to the Ministry of Commerce.

South Korea supplied 9.24 percent of China's imports in 2013, up from 9.17 percent in 2012. The proportion for Japan slid from 9.78 percent to 8.19 percent, according to South Korean official data.

"Catering to China's economic growth, South Korea's exports of automobiles and petrochemicals, smartphones, and flat-screen TVs to China have witnessed a pickup in recent years," says Song Hong, an economist at the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank.

South Korea's automobile exports reached a new high of $48.7 billion in 2013, with exports to China up 13.2 percent, according to the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Exports of industrial components to China were up 5.8 percent last year.

South Korean companies clearly harbor ambitious of expanding abroad. South Korea has signed FTAs with the United States and Europe, which took effect in 2012 and 2011.