Chinese people like South Korea the least of all of their neighbors, according to the results of a recent survey. It is unusual for South Korea to rank ahead of Japan as China's most unpopular neighbor!


In the survey of 12,000 Chinese people over the past four months by the International Herald Leader, a newspaper published by China's official Xinhua News Agency, 40.1 percent of respondents said they dislike South Korea the most. Japan came in second place with 30.2 percent of the vote. The most-liked neighbor was Pakistan with 13.2 percent followed by Russia and Japan, the newspaper said.

In September, market researcher Millward Brown surveyed 1,000 Korean adults on their favorite neighboring country. The majority -- 60.8 percent -- said the U.S. China ranked second with 44.0 percent followed by Russia with 41.4 percent and Japan with 35.6 percent.

Source: Chosun


What is South Korea’s relationship with China?

South Korea's links with China go back centuries, but in the 1950s the two were on opposite sides in the Korean War. Today, China is starting to have increasingly more in common with South Korea than its communist neighbor in the North. China's economy is one of the fastest growing in the world. And with that prosperity comes power. Some in Asia are calling China the new America. But others worry that South Korea's economic infatuation with China has blinded Koreans to Beijing's longterm strategic aims.

Bilateral trade between Seoul and Beijing reached $90 billion in 2004, a 42 percent increase from 2003. The two countries also agree politically on issues ranging from opposition to Japanese Prime Ministers' visits to the Yasukuni war shrine, to accord on how to deal with North Korea's nuclear ambitions. China is also choosing the path of engagement with North Korea, and helping Pyongyang find a "Chinese way" to develop

Beijing, like Seoul, is investing in North Korea, which has ample natural resources—including coal, iron, and gold—and a low-cost labor force. In 2003, Chinese investment in North Korea was $1.1 million; in 2004, it ballooned to $50 million; and in 2005, it was expected to reach $85-90 million. The volume of trade between China and North Korea reached $1.5 billion in 2005, making Beijing Pyongyang's largest foreign trading partner. North Korean leader Kim Jung-Il, who rarely travels, emphasized Beijing's importance to his country by visiting China in January.

South Korea is positioning itself to be closer to an ascendant China, but trying to do it without jeopardizing existing ties with the United States. South Korea's biggest worry, experts say, is being pulled into a conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan.

Source: CFR/asian off beat