Foretastes of Trumpism
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, breaking a 37-year taboo. The U.S. has by and large respected the “one-China” policy by Beijing that regards Taipei as a renegade province.
This rule-breaking provocative Trumpian act gives Korea a foretaste of challenges to come.
As shown by his election-winning “Make America great again” campaign pledge, Trump wants to be assertive with China, a superpower in its own right. Although Beijing called it a mistake, Trump’s latest act should be taken as a calculated move to test the U.S.’s rival. Trump put China on the spot for stealing American jobs and vowed to slap hefty duties on Chinese imports. His hostile approach toward Beijing is set to spill over to territorial disputes in areas such as the South China Sea and hegemonic rows over the Korean Peninsula.
Thereby, his phone call with Tsai is likely to presage more provocative acts by the U.S. after he takes office next month. The chance is that Korea will find itself sandwiched in a clash of interests between the two giants.
Seoul is feeling the effects of revenge from China for what it sees an act of siding with the U.S. over the deployment of an interceptor system against North Korea’s growing missile and nuclear threats. China has threatened to take revenge against Korea through its media, rolling back Korean pop stars’ activities and suppressing Korean firms’ business activities. Trump meanwhile has called Seoul a “freeloader” that has been overly reliant on the U.S. and has failed to pay a fair share for its own defense. Now Trump wants to retool the bilateral trade pact that he claims benefits Korea. Trump as candidate had called on Korea and Japan to arm themselves with nuclear weapons of their own to fight the nuclear-armed Pyongyang.
Seoul has so far taken the ROK-U.S. alliance as the foundation of its national security, while taking China as a key business partner. This dual approach is fast losing its relevance amid the two superpowers’ rivalry and is shifting to a new one that forces Korea to choose one over the other.
Strong leadership at this critical juncture of our diplomacy is sorely missed as the current president has been incapacitated by a huge corruption scandal. The key criteria for the succeeding head of state should be whether to have a strong suit in diplomacy.