Pacific Affairs: An International Review of Asia and the Pacific

Volume 72, No. 2

 

Joining the Major Powers for the Status Quo: China's Views and Policy on Korean Reunification
By Fei-Ling Wang

 

Abstract

Based on document survey and field research, this paper outlines China's views and policy on Korean reunification. Exhibiting a convergence of interest with the other major powers (the United States, Japan and Russia) in the region, Beijing now seeks political stability in Northeast Asia through maintaining the status quo rather than a reunification of the Korean Peninsula. China perceives the renunciation of Korea with a clear ambivalence, for while, officially, Beijing supports an independent and peaceful reunification of Korea in principle, in practice, it prefers and works for the existing balance of power in the region. China is also strongly interested in seeing the peninsula free of external military presence, especially if the peninsula is to be unified. While China currently is a status quo power working with the United States on the Korean issue, Beijing's cooperative policy is not guaranteed. The key factors that may change Beijing's views and policy seem to be the overall Sino American relations, the status of China's own reunification with Taiwan, Sino-Japanese relations, and the prospect of the military ties between a unified Korea and the United States.