Visit highlighted shared values

However, there will be deeper cooperation between China and the ROK in the fields of new energy, communications, intelligent manufacturing, and green development after Xi's visit. More importantly, China and the ROK have pledged to sign an FTA by the end of this year, and will launch a renminbi clearing service in Seoul to enhance the economic ties between both countries. All these moves have empowered the economic ties between China and the ROK to lead the comprehensive exchanges in the Northeast Asia.

Meanwhile, Xi's visit will greatly impact the current geopolitics of Northeast Asia, as Beijing and Seoul have reached a consensus on promoting the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and suppressing Japanese rightist forces. Both Xi and Park called for efforts to create conditions for resumption of the stalled Six-Party Talks, which aim at achieving denuclearization and reunification of the Peninsula in a peaceful way. Additionally, they shared a firm stance against the Abe administration's attempts to whitewash Japan's wartime atrocities and embark on a militarist road again. It is thus foreseeable that Beijing and Seoul will jointly take pragmatic measures to deter Japan from reliving its militarist dream and maintain stability in the region.

Nonetheless, a warmer relationship between China and the ROK has long been doubted and disturbed by the US and Japan in regards to shared values and strategic benefits. In reality, the so-called trilateral alliance between the US, Japan and ROK is far from flawless and the three countries have very little interests in common. In terms of security benefits, all three hold starkly different attitudes towards the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Tokyo's shameless interpretation of a "normal" country has been put into practice as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has finally acquired the right of collective self-defense for the country, posing a bold challenge to the "shared" values of the US-Japan-ROK alliance.

Given the number of shared values that exist between China and ROK, such as the respect for Confucian culture and opposition to nuclear weapons, it is thus important for the two sides to transfer such values to a consensus between Beijing, Washington and Seoul, as this will be indispensable in maintaining the stability of the Asia-Pacific. Both the high-level political and grassroots exchanges between China and ROK have further boosted the bilateral partnership, and will naturally push for the achievement of such a consensus.

A tighter Beijing-Seoul bond reflects the various shared values and strategic interests between both sides, which will not only benefit the comprehensive bilateral cooperation, but also strengthen the foundation for security and prosperity in the world at large.

The author is a professor with Northeast Asia Studies College of Jilin University in Jilin province.

(China Daily 07/07/2014 page8)