Research On Sino-Korea Economic And Trade Relations Before The Establishment Of Diplomatic Relations

From the sharp confrontation after the Korean war to the "unofficial"and "non-political" exchanges,the relations between China and South Korea finally turned to the official political exchanges until the formal establishment of diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level on August 24,1992,in which the economic and trade exchanges had played an important leading role.The progress of Sino-ROK economic and trade relations,especially that of the trade relations,is an important factor for both sides to improve political relations and promote the establishment of diplomatic relations.Regarding the study of the history of Sino-ROK relations before the establishment of diplomatic relations,there have been some achievements in the fields of politics,humanities and sports.However,the exchanges between the two countries in the economic and trade fields,where China and South Korea mainly focused on intermediary trade and indirect trade before the establishment of diplomatic relations,is less studied because of inadequate research materials.This paper uses the methods of literature research and empirical research to explore the Sino-ROK non-governmental trade,the status of investment,including trade policies,trade scale,trade structure and trade patterns before the establishment of diplomatic relations,based on the Sino-ROK economic and trade archives(known as diplomatic documents in Korea)disclosed to the year 1987.During the late 1970s and early 1980s,Sino-ROK relations began to ease from the previous hostility and tension and the non-governmental trade between the two countries began.Under the guidance of the trade authorities of the two countries,the two sides followed the principle of political and economic separation and promoted the development of trade from indirect trade to direct trade prudently.Before the establishment of diplomatic relations,the non-governmental trade between China and South Korea can be divided into two periods:the first is the early and middle 1980s and the second is from the middle and late 1980s to the year 1992 when the two countries established diplomatic relations.In these two periods,the economic and trade relations have shown different characteristics in terms of trade policies,forms and structures.In the first period,the non-governmental trade began at a humble start and the total trade volume was not large and the types of import and export commodities were few.The grain represented by corn and the mineral resources represented by coal and oil were China’s main export commodities,while for South Korea industrial products such as steel products and colored TVs.The trade volume was affected by domestic economic situation of two countries and external factors such as North Korea and Taiwan,with big rising and declining and trade development was unbalanced.The intermediary trade through third parties such as Hong Kong and Japan was the most important form of trade at this stage.Only few commodities such as coal could be exported directly.During the second period,that is,from 1986 to 1992,the economic and trade relations between China and South Korea were greatly improved.While the scale of indirect trade continued to increase,direct trade and investment trade became important ways of trade at this stage.In 1990,the proportion of direct trade exceeded indirect trade,reaching 52.6%.The types of two-way import and export commodities increased including fiber products,textiles,steel products and organic chemicals and the scale of trade expanded rapidly.Big companies such as Daewoo and LG in South Korea had played a pioneering role in expanding their trade and investment in China and contributed a lot to the trade development.The continuous development of bilateral economic and trade exchanges called for the normalization of bilateral relations,providing better and more relaxed environment and more policy support for economic and trade exchanges.Implementing the principle of economic priority and improving bilateral political relations by promoting economic and trade exchanges are features of the development of China-ROK relations before the establishment of diplomatic relations.There is an obvious interaction between economic and trade exchanges and political exchanges and the development of economic and trade relations have had a tremendous positive impact on the bilateral relations elevated from non-political exchanges to formal diplomatic relations.In the process of economic and trade exchanges,the business and diplomatic departments of both countries have played a leading and coordinating role in the formulation of policies in various fields such as trade,investment and personnel exchanges,solving recurring problems in economic and trade exchanges such as visit and visa approvals and handling emergencies,such as emergency evacuation of fishermen to the other country and the hijacking incident in 1983,etc.These activities had not only strengthened direct contact between government officials of both countries,especially those in diplomatic fields,but promoted the flow of personnel,culture exchanges,business travel,visiting relatives and friends and academic exchanges.The South Korean Consulate General in Hong Kong was the official representative of South Korea in China and had frequent contacts with Hong Kong office of Xinhua News Agency.Transcending the obstacles of ideology and improving relations had become the consensus of the officials and the people of the two countries,which ultimately led to the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries.