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The meeting in Beijing between Kim Dong-yeon, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, and Deputy Prime Minister Hu Chunhua of China is attracting renewed attention as Hu is expected to hold talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the 9th and 10th to discuss resolving the U.S.-China conflict.
The meeting between Hu, known as the ‘economic secretary’ of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Yellen, considered the economic brain of U.S. President Joe Biden, is seen as a preliminary contact for a U.S.-China summit. Consequently, there are predictions that the U.S. and China, which have been competing for global dominance over the past decade, may join hands, albeit limitedly, to reorganize the global economy that has fallen into uncertainty due to the overlapping of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and the Hamas-Israel war.
Given the nature of the relationship between South Korea and China, which is inevitably linked to the U.S.-China relationship, it is only natural to attach significance to the meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Hu and Governor Kim.
Previously, Governor Kim, who was visiting China to strengthen the development of South Korea-China relations and local government exchanges, had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Hu at the Central Financial and Economic Committee in Beijing, the highest economic policy-making body of the Chinese Communist Party, on the afternoon of the 2nd (local time). The meeting was uncertain until the last moment. The funeral of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who died suddenly, was held in Beijing on the same day, and Deputy Prime Minister Hu, as a member of the Chinese leadership, was busy preparing for the funeral. In addition, Deputy Prime Minister Hu had to coordinate the Central Financial and Economic Committee’s meeting on China’s economic policy, which was held in Beijing just before the meeting, which was a variable.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Hu willingly responded to the meeting, and the two had a long conversation for over an hour and 30 minutes, far exceeding the scheduled time. They are reported to have promised joint efforts to recover the strained South Korea-China relations and support for strengthening local government exchanges. Apart from the diplomatic consensus, looking at the faces of the people who attended the meeting that day, it is possible to speculate that China attached special significance to the meeting with Governor Kim.
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The main attendees from the Chinese side were Han Wenxiu, Deputy Director of the Central Financial and Economic Committee, Xi Shaozhu, Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council, and Sun Weidong, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
First of all, Deputy Director Han has been playing the role of the ‘mouth’ of the Central Financial and Economic Committee, criticizing the U.S.’s economic sanctions on China and encouraging foreign companies to invest in China.
In addition, Deputy Secretary-General Xi, a financial expert who has served as Deputy Governor of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Deputy Governor of the National Development Bank, and member of the Party Committee, has been assisting ‘economic expert’ Deputy Prime Minister Hu as the Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council since August this year.
In addition, Deputy Director Sun, who has been active as a ‘hawk’ in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, drew attention by directly criticizing President Yoon Seok-yeol, who expressed concern about the explosive bilateral relations in a foreign media interview in April.
Centered on Deputy Prime Minister Hu, who has emerged as one of the top executives in the third term of President Xi, heavyweight figures in the two pillars of Chinese government operation, economy, and diplomacy are all around.
There have been various analyses of the fact that heavyweight figures attended the meeting with the governor of the opposition party, who was once the Deputy Prime Minister for Economy of South Korea.
Especially, there are many opinions that this meeting is exceptional in Chinese society, which places great emphasis on ‘rank’ and ‘status’, considering that Deputy Prime Minister Hu is a heavyweight who took over the baton from former Deputy Prime Minister Liu He, who met with President Trump as the representative negotiator for China during the U.S.-China trade war under the Trump administration.
A Gyeonggi Province official who attended the meeting between the two said, “Considering that it is a diplomatic custom in China that a meeting is not held unless it is the same rank or position, this meeting is very exceptional,” and “It seems that a complex factor such as the personal connection between Governor Kim and Deputy Prime Minister Hu, who are called ‘economic experts’ in both South Korea and China, and the potential for development of Gyeonggi Province, has worked.”
In fact, in December 2017, Governor Kim, as the Deputy Prime Minister for Economy, accompanied President Moon Jae-in on his visit to China and had a meeting with the heads of three major economic ministries in China. Deputy Prime Minister Hu, who was then the head of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planning agency, has a connection with Governor Kim in that they agreed on the restoration and development of economic cooperation and the holding of a South Korea-China Economic Ministers’ Meeting.
An insider well versed in Beijing diplomacy analyzed, “There may be personal connections, but it seems that the intention of the Chinese government, especially President Xi, to restore South Korea-China relations ahead of improving U.S.-China relations, has worked to some extent in the meeting between Governor Kim and Deputy Prime Minister Hu.”
It is said that Governor Kim, who played a role in restoring South Korea-China relations in the past, was marked as a detour to improve strained South Korea-China relations.
Ning Fukui, a former Chinese ambassador to South Korea known as a hardliner, said, “The significance of the meeting between Governor Kim and Deputy Prime Minister Hu is not light.”
He also predicted, “He came as a governor, but his role as a governor has exceeded the frame of local government, and he will play a bigger role.”
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