[ANALYSIS] Trade reliance makes S. Korea easy target for China's visa retaliation: analysts

A woman who arrived from China walks into a COVID-19 testing center at Incheon International Airport in South Korea on Jan. 5. AP-Yonhap

Seoul-Beijing COVID spat escalates following China's new visa curbs

By Jack Lau

South Korea was the first country to take the brunt of Beijing's visa suspensions in retaliation against coronavirus testing requirements imposed by more than 15 countries as cases spiked inside China after the end of its zero-COVID policy.

One analyst said South Korea was targeted first because it could do little to respond to China's retaliation, mainly because of the country's heavy reliance on trade with China. China is South Korea's No. 1 trading partner.

"I think China believes that South Korea greatly relies on it economically, and therefore when China protests, South Korea will comply with its demands. But this thinking might be an illusion," Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University of China, said.

The South Korean government was unlikely to budge on the entry restrictions and would, like other countries, drop the measures when health authorities could ensure no new coronavirus variants were being introduced from China, he said.

Shi said South Korean lawmakers' recent visit to Taiwan also seemed to have played a part in aggravating China.

The South Korean delegation led by Vice Speaker Chung Woo-taik returned to Seoul after a four-day visit to Taiwan from Dec. 28. During its visit, the lawmakers had a 40-minute meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and exchanged ideas about inter-Korean relations and other diplomatic and security issues. China reacted angrily to the parliamentarians' visit to Taiwan.

Shi said he would not rule out China halting short-term visa issuances involving more countries but could not say which might be targeted and when. But the U.S. tended to be the last country to be sanctioned by China despite being the most antagonistic against Beijing.

Passengers arriving from China pass by a COVID-19 testing center at Incheon International Airport in South Korea on Jan. 10. The airport was designated as the only airport from which travelers from China can arrive. AP-Yonhap

Dr. Ryu Yong-wook, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore, said China is aware of the limited options South Korea can take.

"There's hardly anything [South] Korea can do to retaliate against Chinese sanctions," he said, adding that the South was one of the "easier" countries to retaliate against.

But he said he doubted the diplomatic spat would affect ties in the long term, because restrictions would likely drop in two to three months. Relations were already at a low point when South Korea's foreign policy objectives did not align with China's, especially as the U.S.-China rivalry intensified.

Buyidao, an account on Chinese social media platform WeChat that is associated with the Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times, said Wednesday that the fresh entry requirements are an exercise of double standards, and "politicization and weaponization of COVID-19."

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China stops transit visa exemption for Korean, Japanese nationals

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The South Korea-China spat went from bad to worse on Wednesday, when Beijing imposed a new visa regulation to further tightened entry requirements on South Korean and Japanese nationals.

The agency said in a statement that it would stop issuing visas at entry ports, a service used by travelers who needed to enter China in an emergency without first applying for a visa at a Chinese diplomatic mission. From Wednesday, South Koreans and Japanese nationals would no longer enjoy visa exemptions when transferring at certain ports.

Before China suspended short-term visa issuances for South Korean nationals, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his South Korean counterpart, Park Jin, that Seoul needed to have an "objective and scientific attitude" towards China's reopening.

Park said on Wednesday that China's retaliatory move was "deeply regrettable."

"The foreign ministries of both countries have been having a lot of conversations ― both in person and online ― in order to improve the bilateral relationship, but then this thing happens," Ryu said, referring to the visa dispute.

"So I guess it's like throwing cold water on their intention to improve their relationship."

No country besides South Korea and Japan has been retaliated against for imposing new entry restrictions, even though countries including the United States, India, Australia, Greece, Sweden and the United Kingdom have required testing for the coronavirus for travelers from China.

Beijing said Tuesday that they would stop issuing short-term visas, which allow a stay in China for up to 180 days for South Korean and Japanese nationals visiting for leisure, business, transit, medical purposes and "private matters," because the countries had imposed testing requirements on arrivals from China.

South Korea has required a PCR test since Jan. 2 within one day of arrival and a pre-flight test since Jan. 5. It also restricted the number of short-term visas issued, banned additional flights and required all flights from China to land at Incheon International Airport near the capital Seoul. The government will review the measures at the end of February.

"The measures above will be adjusted depending on the cancellation of Korea's discriminatory entry restrictions on China," the Chinese embassy in Seoul said in a statement, Tuesday.

A total of 6,396 people entered South Korea from China between Jan. 2 and Jan. 7 after Seoul imposed a post-flight COVID test, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Wednesday.

Of them, 5,617 were tested and 1,100 travelers returned a positive result for the virus, representing a positive rate of 19.6%, lower than the 21.9% of all foreign nationals entering on short-term visas in the same period.

The South Korean government said its testing requirements were imposed because of a spike in cases in China and a lack of transparency from health authorities there in publishing data on outbreaks. It said the measures were made on scientific grounds.

China has not published its daily caseloads since December last year as it abandoned a long-championed zero-COVID policy of widespread lockdowns and mass testing to control outbreaks that lasted nearly three years.

Jack Lau is a reporter with the South China Morning Post. He is currently based in Seoul, writing for both The Korea Times and the South China Morning Post under an exchange program.