Sook-Jong Lee is the President of the East Asia Institute and a Professor at the Department of Public Administration at Sungkyunkwan University.

States form images of each other based on assessments of each other’s material capabilities or on interpretations of each other’s intentions. Images matter in the foreign policy making process since they form popular public opinion on official policies and, in more basic ways, construct people’s identity toward other countries. Some images are more transient and therefore manageable. Remarks by foreign leaders, official documents, or media coverage tend to belong to this category. States try to make their images favorable in the minds of a foreign audience through their public diplomacy efforts. On the other hand, some images are more fundamental and hard to change, so that foreign policies are pressed to operate within their perimeter. Political ideology, religious orientation, and accumulated bilateral historical experiences tend to form these more durable images.

Today’s globalized world has witnessed the rise of the Internet as an important medium constructing popular images of a foreign country. As mass communication across countries becomes more open and instant, foreign policy makers face the increasing challenge of controlling information flows and separating foreign policy agendas from domestic interests. Citizens with less direct contact are more prone to embracing popular images mediated by mass media. Elites, in contrast, who have more direct contact and knowledge, tend to have more rationally interpreted images of foreign countries. Formerly, elites used to monopolize foreign policy inputs. In the porous world of today, however, it is difficult for elites to resist and persuade popular opinion, which is more emotionally driven. This challenge is felt in China, where the leadership is sometimes at odds with irrational populism.

In this respect, it is important to understand Chinese images of South Korea. How do elites and ordinary citizens of China hold South Korea in their political imagination? What are the implications of Chinese images of Korea for Seoul’s China policy?

The Transformative Bilateral History of the Last Century

For hundreds of years before modernization, Korea was a tribute country to imperial China. Except for two invasions by pre-Qing Manchu China in the seventeenth century, the Chosun Dynasty of Korea preserved peace and relative autonomy in its relationship with China. During this period, Korea for China was a more civilized country on the Eastern periphery of the Chinese order. The centuries’ old absolute power of imperial China was shattered quite suddenly. The late nineteenth century Chosun witnessed with great awe China’s struggle to preserve its sovereignty in the face of encroachment from the West. The Korean Peninsula became a testing ground of Chinese influence vis-a-vis Japan and Western powers. Once Korea was colonized by Japan, China, in the midst of revolution and civil war, provided breathing room for the Korean independence movement. However, following the communist revolution China became an enemy state to South Koreans by assisting North Korea during the Korean War and so contributing to the division of the Korean Peninsula. To China, South Korea reborn as the Republic of Korea in 1948 was a mere puppet pro-U.S. state while North Korea was a buffer zone to stop the encroachment by America. South Korea and China went through a dark age, with no official interaction until the Cold War ended and diplomatic relations were normalized in 1992. China, already in a high growth stage at the time of normalization, rapidly expanded its trade and investment relations with South Korea to become its number one trade partner in 2004. For China, South Korea became its most frequently visited country, with an image of affluence and an urbane culture.

Having passed through a transformative post-normalization period, South Korea faces China as a big power not only in dealing with North Korea but also in engaging the Asian region and the rest of the world. While South Korea is anchored in its alliance relationship with the United States, how to manage and develop the relationship with China is the foreign policy challenge for South Korean leaders. On the other hand, for China, keeping a prosperous and dynamic South Korea closer is an important strategic goal as well. Preventing South Korea from embracing Japan at the expense of China is strategically important in the tripartite relations in Northeast Asia. Of more importance would be for China to pursue closer economic ties with South Korea and to remain neutral were the roughly 28,000 U.S. soldiers there to become involved in any conflict outside of the Korean Peninsula. At the same time, China’s strategic concern is in helping North Korea to survive and remain stable. Accordingly, China has taken a neutral position toward recent North Korean provocations, such as the sinking of the South Korean vessel Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. China is now locked into a dilemma: its poor ally North Korea is emboldened to attack the South, only strengthening South Korea’s military ties with the United States against China’s wishes. In a nutshell, South Korea and China share overall interests in keeping Northeast Asia peaceful and prosperous but their vital security interests derived from their relationships with North Korea and the United States remain divisive.

Against the backdrop of the rapidly changing South Korea–China relationship of today, it is worthwhile to examine how the Chinese view South Korea. This view has not been examined sufficiently. The first ever cross-national soft power survey, carried out in 2008 by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the East Asia Institute (EAI), revealed that the Chinese viewed South Korea’s soft power as stronger than that of Japan’s. But there has been no effective survey done on Chinese images of South Korea and their views of South Korea–China relations. To address this dearth of data, the EAI launched a telephone survey from July 27 to August 2 of 2010 targeting 1,000 urban Chinese citizens from 10 major cities. In August 2010, an additional online survey was also carried out for 150 elites who were composed of 49 experts, 77 businessmen, and 24 bureaucrats. To the extent that elite views are important in foreign policy making, the survey was intended to explore differences between ordinary citizens and elites views in China in their views toward South Korea. The following are the major findings regarding South Korea’s image in the Chinese political imagination.

South Korea Favored but Not Much

Contrary to the expectation that elites would find information on South Korea more through books or textbooks, elites receive data mostly through the Internet (46%). On the other hand, ordinary citizens pick up information on South Korea via television/radio (30.6%) or newspapers/magazines (20.3%). This may be because elites check information more frequently through the Internet. Whatever the medium for getting information, most Chinese view South Korea through the cultural lens. When answers to open questions on South Korea’s images are categorized, 40.7% of images are culture related—primarily popular TV dramas, movies, and entertainment celebrities. Twenty-three percent of images concern business and industries ranging from plastic surgery/beauty businesses to IT/automobile industries; 17.3% of images concern Korean personalities and national characteristics. It is notable that half of the images in the personalities/national characteristics category describe Koreans as too nationalistic or patriotic. Lastly, 12.4% of images could be categorized as political ones.

One third of images in this category describe South Korea as a divided nation and 23.1% of images point out South Korea as a pro-U.S. country of its military ally or diplomatic partner. Images concerning South Korea’s president or democratic achievement tally 16.9%.. Images belonging to cultural or economic categories tend to be positive while those belonging to national characteristics or political categories tend to be critical. In cities where the exposure to South Koreans and Korean culture is relatively high, there seem to be more negative images related to cultural and historical issues. A significant number of Chinese believe that South Korea plagiarizes China’s own cultural heritage, such as Confucianism, and contradicts Chinese history.

The favorability score the Chinese have reported toward South Korea on a scale of 0 (very unfavorable) to 100 (very favorable) was 57.5. This score is slightly higher than the scores the Chinese report toward North Korea, Indonesia, India, or Japan. Only the United States is more favored than South Korea in this survey. In addition, Chinese elites view South Korea more favorably than do ordinary Chinese citizens by about 10%. However, compared to other previous surveys, the favorability ratings of South Korea have declined, as have North Korean ratings. For example, the Chinese favorability score toward South Korea on the same 0–100 scale was 73.0 in the July 2006 Survey and 64.5 in the January–February 2008 Survey, both conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In these two surveys, North Korea favorability also declined from 72.6 to 55.5. If these polls are viewed on a continuum, the Chinese favorability score toward South Korea has declined continuously from 73.0, 64.5, to 57.5 during the period of 2006–2010...(Continued)