Asia’s Trilateral Summit Short on Substance
China returns to summit looking for comfort as US tightens export controls
By: Shim Jae Hoon
In Seoul’s diplomatic circles, Chinese Premier Li Qiang is known as the “spare tire” who takes over the job of representing China when the real boss, paramount leader Xi Jinping, considers himself above visiting countries smaller in size or meeting with leaders less important than himself. Thus when the affable Li arrived in Seoul for an overnight trip on May 26 for the first trilateral summit in four and half years with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, expectations were long on rhetoric and short on substance, as in fact were the conclusions.
Li’s assertion that China was ready for wider free-trade deals with Seoul and presumably with Tokyo offered few details beyond sketching closer cooperation among the three countries over issues ranging from climate change to cooperating on science and technology, care for aging populations, and exchanges of more visitors. Even the agenda of promoting wider free trade appeared lackluster in the wake of criticisms that China is practicing what critics have called coercive trade patterns and technology theft.
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