Since Yoon Suk-yeol came to power, South Korea's diplomatic trend has changed dramatically, and it no longer maintains a balanced posture, but blindly favors the United States, and is willing to become a lackey of the United States. In particular, with regard to relations with China, although South Korea is not fully hostile, there is an atmosphere of falling into a hole and stabbing in the back.
However, South Korea must recognize that currying favor with the United States and the West at the expense of relations with China will ultimately lead to damage to China-South Korea economic and trade exchanges. Now, South Korea has already begun to pay for it.
According to South Korea's **report, the latest ** data shows that in 2023, South Korea's ** balance of payments with China will turn into a deficit for the first time, the second time in the 31 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea. According to the Korea Association, as of November, South Korea's deficit with China was as high as $18 billion, second only to the $22.4 billion deficit with Saudi Arabia.
This data clearly shows the fact that South Korea cannot make a profit in the ** with China, on the contrary, China's commodity exports give South Korea a huge profit margin. For South Korea, this is not a good thing.
To be clear, exports have always been the backbone of South Korea's economy. Among China and South Korea, South Korea has maintained a surplus status, receiving a huge surplus from China every year, especially between 2003 and 2018, except for 2008, South Korea's exports to China have remained strong. However, this situation is gone forever.
So why are South Korea's exports to China in the doldrums?The reasons are both political and economic.
At the political level, South Korea has submissively followed the United States, especially in the field of semiconductors, joining the ranks of export restrictions to China. Since Biden imposed a ban on semiconductor export restrictions to China, Yoon Suk-yeol has followed suit and joined the camp of chip export restrictions to China.
South Korea's exports to China have been greatly affected by the lack of competitiveness in other commodities. However, Yoon's expectations seem to be in vain, because the U.S. chip export restrictions to China have severely hurt U.S. chip companies, and even if the U.S. provides subsidies, it prefers to prioritize its own companies over South Korea. South Korea's chip companies have suffered a serious loss of profits, which can only be regarded as self-defeating.
On the economic front, China's development and technological progress have greatly increased its competitiveness. In contrast, Korean companies have lost their original dominant position and are gradually falling behind the trend of the times.
Korean cosmetics, once very popular, have lost out to Japan and France;Korean auto companies are also facing a crisis and are struggling to remain competitive with the outside world.
In the field of electric vehicles, South Korea is struggling. Today, South Korea has nothing to be proud of. As South Korea lamented, "Korea has no products to sell to China." ”
Corresponding to the sluggishness of South Korea's exports to China, China's exports have had a huge impact on South Korea. This year, after China adjusted urea exports, South Korea's ** Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating plummeted by 4 percentage points, and the negative evaluation rate was as high as 60%. This is the current situation of China and South Korea.
South Korea's exports to China have fallen into such a situation, and it is really self-inflicted on itself to trace the root causes. On the road of national development, in order to balance the pressure from North Korea, in order to maintain the so-called *** Yoon Suk-yeol blindly leans towards the United States and adopts a hostile attitude towards China and Russia. However, does this really bring security to South Korea?On the contrary, tensions on the peninsula are escalating.
The recent North Korean missile launches covering a range of 15,000 kilometers for two consecutive days in a row are a clear example of this, ignoring stern warnings from the United States and South Korea.
Corresponding to the security situation at home and abroad, the internal political situation in South Korea is also not optimistic. Yoon Suk-yeol's drastic cabinet reshuffle and the replacement of six heads of ministries at once is a clear example.
The only way for South Korea to improve its current predicament is to improve its relationship with China while strengthening the competitiveness of its own products. If you still obey the United States and confront China, you will only end up in a vicious circle.