‘We can turn China into blessing’

Seok Tong-youn, secretary-general of the Northeast Asian History Foundation

China is a blessing to Korea rather than a curse, a China expert said Wednesday.

“I think it is a blessing to have a country like this next to us,” said Seok Tong-youn, 58, secretary-general of the state-run Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF).

“China is turning from being the world’s factory to becoming the world’s market; but how to put this to our best use is left to our own discretion,” he said.

The career diplomat served as consul-general to Hong Kong and the embassy in China, and has contributed various columns on Korea-China relations to newspapers in both countries.

The China expert said the Samsung Group last year recorded over $60 billion revenue just in China and Hyundai Motor-Kia Motors sold over 1.14 million cars there.

The country is the world’s second largest economy, and around 77 million Chinese tourists are expected to travel abroad this year.

China’s purchasing power parity — how much people earn and spend in their respective domestic markets — will exceed that of the United States by 2016.

“By conservative estimates, China’s nominal gross domestic product will surpass the United States in 2028,” said Seok.

The NAHF secretary-general stressed the need to understand the minds of the Chinese people.

“We don’t know who the Chinese are and haven’t even tried to,” said Seok. “In order to have a better communication, we need to first read what’s in their hearts and try to look for mutual interest in a sincere manner.”

Regarding Beijing’s protests at Washington dispatching the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Yellow Sea in 2010, Seok claimed that it is not that China opposed sending a warning message after North Korea’s deadly artillery attack, but rather the history surrounding the sea that made it sensitive to the matter.

“The Yellow Sea, for China, is where it lost against Japan in the Sino-Japanese War, and it used to be the route for western powers invading China,” said Seok. “We only look at China in our way.”

Meanwhile, the secretary-general added Beijing is also partly responsible for bringing in the U.S. ship to the sea since it should have echoed the South Korea and U.S. view of pressing Pyongyang to halt further provocation.

“If we can have good communication with Beijing, there is room for cooperation on such matters as well,” Seok said.

Concerning the recent incident of the Great Wall extension, he said, the original version of the China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage’s research should be checked as it could have included the fortifications of the ancient Korean Kingdoms of Goguryeo and Balhae.

“I hope people can also look into the good aspects of Korea-China relations,” Seok said.

Prior to serving as the secretary-general of the NAHF, he was the international advisory ambassador of Gyeonggi Province. <The Korea Times/Chung Min-uck>

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