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Chinese tourists board their cruise ship in Jeju Island after shopping on Mar. 15

Was China’s behavior toward South Korea over the past four to five years under President Xi Jinping not its own form of “Sunshine Policy”? Was it not a time when China, having confirmed its own might and earned recognition as one of the G2 powers by the international community, treated South Korea in an ever-friendly way - generously giving, gently soothing, all the while drawing it near as if to see how close it could get?

There were a lot of surprises at the event five years ago in Beijing to mark the 20th anniversary of South Korea-China relations, starting with the unexpected appearance of Xi, who had then been nominated as China’s next leader. In Seoul and Jeju Island, Chinese tourist numbers skyrocketed. South Korean films and TV shows drew tremendous popularity in China; positive attitudes toward South Korea and its people and businesses soared.

But South Korea’s decision to deploy a THAAD missile defense system marked a failure for this Chinese Sunshine Policy. Certainly, Beijing must have sensed its limits. After all the cries of “No,” “Stop,” “Don’t do it,” it has been left now with egg on its face. The big question for the 25th anniversary event this year is not whether the heads of state will be invited, but whether it will even be held at all. The boom of Chinese tourists and the Korean Wave (Hallyu) in China look poised to become things of the past.

It’s not usual for a failed Sunshine Policy to be replaced by a Tempest Policy. In complaining that South Korea was making money off of trade with China while bringing weapons in that pose a threat, Chinese conservatives have been all too reminiscent of South Korean conservatives who accused North Korea of profiting from economic cooperation with the South and then buying weapons that threatened it. But if we simply look at the trade numbers, South Korea’s reliance on China today is greater than its dependence on the North back then - which means the shock stands to be that much bigger and more painful.

It’s time now for South Korea to take its medicine. Even if it isn’t fair, there isn’t much we can do. Whatever happens later, we have to take one on the chin if we hope to get through the current phase. It’s the only way we’ll be able to start over. Haven’t we already suffered? Aren’t we hurting now? Sure. People working in China-related domestic industries in particular, and the hundreds of thousands of Koreans living in China (800,000 according to the Korean Residents Association, 370,000 according to government statistics), have all taken a huge blow. There are even concerns the situation could escalate into something like the large-scale anti-Japan demonstrations of 2012 in China.

But it’s strange. Recently, there have been arguments from some corners of South Korea that act like this hasn’t been painful at all, saying that we simply need to decrease our dependence on China and “diversify our markets.” We don’t need China, they excitedly tell us. We can go to India or Southeast Asia instead. People who would never dream of diversifying security are strikingly prone to saying things like this. Were these China ventures products of poor judgment? Weren’t these people the same ones building up the “China rise” in the not-too-distant past? Maybe their casual, “no problem” attitude is part of the reason that sentiments in China - the feeling that it’s time to give South Korea what for - refuse to die down.

The Japanese car and restaurant owners targeted for attacks in 2012 pled for mercy from worked-up Chinese demonstrators shouting about how the Diaoyu Islands (called Senkaku in Japan) were “Chinese territory.” Some Japanese residents are said to have hidden their identity and pretended that they were Korean. It may be that South Koreans living in or traveling to China will have to come up with their own measures. Maybe they can print up business cards reading “opposed to THAAD”? In a pinch, will they shout “Hail Chairman Mao,” like in the South Korea boycott videos? Perhaps they can follow recent trends and cry “Hail Xi Dada” (Xi Jinping’s nickname) instead? If they get into a quarrel with Chinese locals over THAAD, can they calm them by saying that it was all Park Geun-hye’s fault, and that that’s why we ran her out of office?

It may feel a bit self-defeating, but it all stems from the feeling that there’s no one else looking out for them. What more can they say when even the South Korean embassy in Beijing is talking now about “diversification”? If we’re being told that it’s up to the individuals to face the tempest, all any of us can do is survive somehow and pray for the good times to come again - to talk about how much it hurts, even if it gets us called “crybabies,” and pray that the blows might soften just a bit.

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

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