There’s no magical solution for returning US-China relations to what they were before Trump

Posted on : 2020-11-12 17:43 KST Modified on : 2020-11-12 17:43 KST
S. Korea will have more room to move under Biden, but will still be pressured to take sides against China
Moon Chung-in, chairman of the board of the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture, and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hold a video conference during the Hankyoreh-Busan International Symposium in Busan on Nov. 11. (Baek So-ah, staff photographer)
Moon Chung-in, chairman of the board of the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture, and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hold a video conference during the Hankyoreh-Busan International Symposium in Busan on Nov. 11. (Baek So-ah, staff photographer)

The two-day 16th Hankyoreh-Busan International Symposium kicked off on Nov. 11 at the Nurimaru APEC House in Busan, organized by the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture and the city of Busan on the topics of the COVID-19 pandemic and major changes in the world order.

Since the symposium was held shortly after the US presidential election, which seems to have resulted in a victory for Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden. Participants focused not only on how the world order would be altered by the COVID-19 pandemic but also on what strategies and policies the Biden administration would adopt toward China and North Korea.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said during a video conference with Moon Chung-in, chairman of the board of the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture, that even a Biden administration won’t have a magic formula for restoring US-China relations to the way they were before Trump’s election in 2016. Given ongoing structural tension and competition between the US and China, Rudd predicted, the Biden administration will replace Trump’s romantic approach to North Korea with a reasonable strategy that’s also consistent and systematic.

“While we’ll have more breathing room than under Trump, Korea will still have a lot of difficulties under a Biden administration because we’ll probably continue to face pressure to choose between the US and China,” Moon Chung-in predicted.

But Moon did offer a positive note about North Korea-US relations. “The fact that [Biden’s] group of advisors includes veteran authorities on the situation in North Korea such as William Perry or Robert Gallucci offers a point of contrast with the Trump administration.”

“If South and North Korea take joint action against the COVID threat, it could prove to be a game changer that resets the board on the Korean Peninsula. Beginning with infectious disease control, we’ll keep broadening the scope of cooperation to disaster response and then climate and the environment,” said Unification Minister Lee In-young in his congratulatory address.

“A crisis is often the key that opens the door of opportunity. If we add to our previous success with infectious disease control by ushering in the era of peace on the Korean Peninsula, we would be fully capable of becoming a leading country in the world,” said Shin Sang-hae, president of the Busan city council.

“We should all pool our wisdom and insights to protect and expand space for autonomy on the Korean Peninsula, which is threatened by the escalating conflict between the US and China and the crisis caused by the pandemic,” proposed Kim Hyun-dae, CEO of the Hankyoreh newspaper.

Mark Abdollahian, a professor at Claremont Graduate University, and Kim Yeong-jun, a professor at Gyeongsang National University, joined a young scholars’ debate on the topic of the fusion of geopolitics and high technology in which they traded opinions about the future of China and the US’ cold war over technology.

John Pomfret, columnist with the Washington Post, and Shi Yinhong, professor at the Institute of International Relations at China’s Renmin University, took part in the first session about a new cold war between the US and China and foreign policy and national security challenges in Asia.

By Lee Se-young, staff reporter

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