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President Park Geun-hye (left side

Chinese President Xi Jinping voiced strong opposition to deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antimissile system to South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Sept. 5. In so doing, Xi picked up where he had left off at a summit with US President Barack Obama two days before, when he stressed that China “objects to the US’s deployment of THAAD in Korea” and demanded that the US show “practical respect for China’s strategic security interests.”

This was not Xi’s first time to express opposition to THAAD. What was noteworthy was the reiteration of the message at the first South Korea-China summit since Seoul and Washington announced the decision to deploy the THAAD system with US Forces Korea on July 8. Of interest was Xi’s identification of the US, rather than South Korea, as the agent behind the deployment. At both the South Korea and US summits, Xi used the expression “opposition to the US’s deployment of THAAD in South Korea.” The message is that he essentially views the issue not through the lens of South Korea-China relations, but through that of the US-China relations – as a matter of “great power politics.”

Xi’s perceptions bring to mind events from the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. In talks with Obama held on the occasion of the summit on March 31, he clearly stated his objections, saying a THAAD deployment would “compromise China’s national security interests and disrupt the strategic balance in the region.” At a summit with Park the same day, he also expressed what amounted to opposition. “I urge all parties to avoid any words or actions that could cause political tensions, and no harm should be done to the security interests and strategic balance of countries in this region,” he said at the time.

Xi also released a joint statement with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 25.

“Forces outside the region citing speculative reasons have deployed or are planning to deploy a ground-based Aegis missile defense system in Europe and THAAD in the Asia-Pacific region. This does great harm to the strategic security interests of countries within the region, including China and Russia,” it read. “China and Russia are strongly opposed to this.”

“Forces outside the region” is a reference to the US. The statement reflects perceptions that the US is attempting to curb Russia in Europe and China in the Asia-Pacific region with deployment of Aegis and missile defense systems. It also explains why Xi expressed opposition to “the US’s deployment of THAAD in South Korea” to Park on Sept. 5, rather than deployment by “South Korea and the US” or “South Korea.”

This also means Beijing does not accept Park’s explanation that THAAD is “purely a means of responding to North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles” and that South Korea has “no reason or need to harm the security interests of any third country [that is, China].”

The differences between the Seoul and Beijing leaders’ views on THAAD hint that Park’s hopes of “continuing to [engage in] communication on various areas of interest, including the THAAD issue” will not have the desired results. Her proposal for “communication between South Korea, the US and China” on the THAAD issue in her meeting with Xi – despite almost zero possibility of China accepting – comes across in as a last-ditch measure reflecting Seoul’s impossible situation.

Xi was not smiling as he shook Park’s hand at the beginning of the meeting, which was open to the press. Once they were behind closed doors, he sent the message that failure to handle the THAAD issue effectively “could intensify conflict among the countries involved.” This amounted to a warning: If South Korea insists on sticking to its deployment plans, it will end up a victim of the strategic rivalry and conflict between the US and China.

This is a situation that would leave little hope for international coordination on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and compound the threats to the South Korean economy from the THAAD conflict with China and political turbulence in Northeast Asia.

Xi also said China “supports the Six-Party Talks platform” and stressed that “the areas of interest for the different parties must be resolved in a fully balanced way.” This amounted to a plea not to respond to North Korea’s nuclear test and ballistic missile launch with a THAAD deployment, but to resume the Six-Party Talks and address the situation with a sense of “balance” that takes into account North Korea’s interests.

Park’s response was to stress the need for “a strong and resolute response from the international community to North Korea’s reckless provocations and sending a consistent message to Pyongyang.” Common ground is nowhere in sight.

By Choi Hye-jeong, staff reporter, and Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent, in Hangzhou

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