Seoul, Beijing set for further economic integration

[cirr]

Seoul, Beijing set for further economic integration

Park Hyong-ki

The Korea Herald

Publication Date : 02-08-2014


Once foes and now friends, South Korea and China have become closer than ever, with bilateral trade increasing rapidly.

Korea’s shopping districts and tourist sites ― notably Myeong-dong in Seoul and Jejudo Island ― are filled with Chinese-speaking guides and banners welcoming the largest group of visitors to the country, who are helping Korea reduce its prolonged services deficit.

Some 4.3 million Chinese visited Korea last year, and the Korea Tourism Organisation expects five million this year.

More and more students are opting to go to China to study its language and business culture to brace for a fast-approaching era of stronger ties between Seoul and Beijing, with a bilateral free trade agreement likely to be sealed later this year.

Many analysts paint optimistic outlooks for the bilateral free trade to spur growth in Korea’s IT, chemicals and machinery industries, which account for a large share of its exports to the world’s most populous country.

“Korea’s population is much lower than the minimum 90 million needed for any country to sustain domestic consumption,” said Kwak Hyun-soo, an analyst at Shinhan Investment.

“To this end, exports will inevitably have to continue to be Korea’s core growth engine.”

Further economic integration between Seoul and Beijing would benefit the high-tech sector, as the world’s second-largest economy seeks to shift to innovation from manufacturing by developing key industries such as new energy and information technology.

The FTA will also pave the way for more cultural exchanges, with Seoul and Beijing likely to pursue more joint ventures in arts and content production.

The free trade agreement, along with Seoul’s increased access to Shanghai’s capital market, is expected to integrate both economies and bring them to a level similar to China’s economic relations with the U.S. and Africa, which many analysts have described as “Siamese twins.”

With China boosting its presence worldwide both geopolitically and geoeconomically, the renminbi is also rapidly catching up with key G3 currencies ― the US dollar, the euro and the Japanese yen ― to become a viable trade currency.

Although the yuan only takes up about 1 per cent in the global forex market, the use of Chinese money for trade with its partners reached 4.65 trillion yuan ($753 billion) in 2013, up from 510 million yuan (US$82.52 million) in 2010.

The dollar remains the top currency for trade, accounting for more than 80 per cent, followed by the yuan, which surpassed the euro as a trade currency last year. Standard Chartered Bank forecast that more than 28 per cent of global trade will soon be conducted in yuan.

Analysts said Korea, which agreed with China to set up an offshore clearing center for direct won-yuan transactions, has the potential to become one of the world’s hubs for yuan trading.

“The country has a competitive edge over countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, which have set up clearing centers ahead of Korea, as Asia’s fourth-largest economy trades more with China than those two economies do,” said Han Beom-ho, an analyst at Shinhan Investment.

Seoul, Beijing set for further economic integration - ANN

 

[cirr]

Incheon’s 100 years of Chinese diaspora

The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

Saturday, Aug 02, 2014

Tourists fill the streets of Korea’s biggest Chinatown in Incheon.

On the busy streets of Korea's biggest Chinatown in Incheon stands Gonghwachun, one of the most popular Chinese restaurants among tourists to the area. "We hold pride in our 100-year history," its sign reads.

Not many are aware that the large, four-story restaurant ― inauthentically decorated with red panels and paintings of dragons ― is in fact owned by a Korean, and has no direct link to the original Gongwhachun (1912-1983), the legendary restaurant considered to be the first in Korea to offer jajangmyeon, the beloved localized Chinese noodle dish.

If she and her mother had known more about Korean law, Wang Ae-joo, the granddaughter of the Chinese founder of the original Gonghwachun, would have owned the right to the name of her family business, which lasted for three generations. The Korean owner of the new Gonghwachun bought the restaurant's trademark in 2001, 18 years after the original closed down.

Wang, with her husband, owns a small Chinese restaurant named Shinsheungbanjeom, about a five- minute walk from the new Gonghwachun. The property, currently under renovation, is about one-fifth the size of the new Gonghwachun, and relatively ― and ironically ― unknown to tourists and visitors.

"I've tried (to regain the name)," the 43-year-old told The Korea Herald. "My mother opened the restaurant that I run now back in 1980, as a second branch of Gonghwachun. At the time, we didn't know not using the same name would bring such consequences. We've had lawsuits (over the name) but it was no use."

Wang is one of some 10,000 remaining Chinese residents in Incheon's Chinatown area, where the first Chinese settlers arrived in the late 19th century. Most of them, including Wang, are descendants of farmers and laborers from today's Shandong province in China, who moved to the port city of Incheon for job opportunities. Wang's grandfather, Woo Hee-gwang, worked as a laborer in Incheon before founding his own restaurant.

For more than a century, Chinese residents in Incheon were heavily affected by China's turbulent modern history, as well as South Korea's discriminatory policies against the Chinese ― especially during Park Chung-hee's authoritarian regime in the 1960s.

In 1949, Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China. After the Korean War (1950-1953), South Korea recognised the Republic of China (Taiwan) as the only Chinese government, due to its anticommunist political agenda.

While few Chinese residents in Incheon had even visited Taiwan ― most were from Shandong ― they had to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in order to be granted residency status in Korea. "They are from the mainland, but they live in Incheon with Taiwanese citizenship," a researcher from the National Folk Museum explained.

In 1961, President Park Chung-hee implemented discriminatory policies against the Chinese, including currency reforms and property restrictions, in an attempt to control their economic activities.

"I was told we weren't allowed have much cash, we couldn't invest in properties, and we were restricted from engaging in banking activities," Wang told The Korea Herald. "Many left for other countries at the time, including the US Those who had money left, and those who didn't have much to lose remained."

Today, Incheon's Chinatown is one of the most popular tourist sites in the port city, attracting visitors worldwide. The area is filled with Chinese-style buildings, most of them red, along with historical sites including the property of the original Gongwhachun, which is now a museum on the restaurant's history and its famous specialty jajangmyeon.

But Incheon's long-time residents recall the area being far from what one would call "Chinese" before 2002, when the city's municipal government invested 6.5 billion won ($6.3 million) in a project to revive its Chinatown ― mainly to attract large numbers of visitors from mainland China. They in fact recall there being a lot of Japanese-style buildings ― both residential and historical ― that were built during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea.

"I moved to Incheon from my hometown Gimpo to attend high school in the late 1970s," said Jang Mi-hee, a tour guide and long-time Incheon resident.

"I just remember the area being ordinary and a little bit shabby, with a lot of Japanese-style buildings. When I was attending high school, I wasn't too conscious of the Chinese population here. This landscape of Chinatown we see now was practically created artificially in 2002."

Still, there is evidence of the Chinese residents' history in the area, including the Joongsan Overseas Chinese School, founded in 1934. The Chinese-language emersion school, which only accepts Chinese residents' children and a small number of Korean students under special conditions, is named after the pseudonym of Sun Yat-sen, the first president of the Republic of China.

The school, which offers classes from grades 1 to 13, is Wang's alma mater, as well as the school her daughter is attending. Financed by the Taiwanese government, the school is not legally recognised as an educational institution by the Korean government. The graduates either have to pursue higher education in Taiwan, or apply as foreign students if they wish to attend universities in Korea.

"There were about 60 students in my class, and 30 went to universities in Taiwan. I also moved to Taiwan to attend a Taiwanese university," said Wang, who spent 10 years in Taiwan and returned to Korea to carry on her family's restaurant business in Incheon.

"Among the 30, only about 10 came back to Korea. At the time, many of us thought it was best to go to Taiwan and settle down there, as the restrictive policies made it hard for us live in Korea. But things are different now, and it is much easier to do things here. I will let my daughter make her own decisions."

Wang said many of the Chinese residents make their children attend Korean schools, but it was important for her that her child learn China's history and language. "I think it's great to be out there and explore the unknown, and have the freedom to decide where you want to be," said Wang. "But before making that decision, I think you have to know who you are first. It's very important. When the city government was turning the original property of Gonghwachun into a museum, they offered to let us use the property's small space as a restaurant. But we asked them to use that space as a special exhibition section about our grandfather instead. It wasn't about making profits, but about remembering our past and the tradition."

The diplomatic relations between South Korea and Taiwan were terminated in 1992, the same year South Korea established diplomatic ties with People's Republic of China.

Incheon's Chinatown is now the home for migrants from mainland China, as well as the descendants of the early settlers.

A Chinese woman surnamed Sun has run a small store in Chinatown for about seven years. Among the things in her store are traditional Chinese garments, jewelry made of Chinese jade and jasmin tea. "I am from Shandong, and I know my ancestors moved here before the formation of People's Republic of China," she said. "But I want to close the store now. Most of the products I sell now are available at Dongdaemun Market. This area is dominated by Chinese restaurants targeting tourists."

- See more at: Incheon’s 100 years of Chinese diaspora, AsiaOne Asia News

 

[cirr]

China’s rising clout in Korea

Shin Hyon-hee

The Korea Herald

Publication Date : 02-08-2014


Around 300BC, a Chinese widow moved house three times in search of a better place to raise her son.

Living beside a cemetery, the child mimicked funeral rites. Near a marketplace, he imitated merchants. Then the mother settled on a house close to a school, where the boy was influenced by literati, soon perfected the Six Arts and became a Confucian sage.

Throughout history, the tale of the mother of Mencius has served as a model for devotion to education and strict parenting in neighbouring Korea, which has had its own share of tigerish matriarchs who raised great scholars, politicians and artists against all odds.

Korea and China have maintained a close relationship since 1992, when they reestablished diplomatic ties that had been severed after the Communists came to power in Beijing in 1949.

Historical and cultural bonds over two millennia underlie their ties, which are evolving into a more mature, substantive and multidimensional partnership based on their growing geopolitical and economic interdependence.

The improving ties are symbolised by the friendship between their current leaders, Park Geun-hye and Xi Jinping.

Since their inaugurations early last year, the two presidents have had five summits. Most recently in Seoul in July, they displayed a united front against a nuclear-armed North Korea and Japan’s lack of atonement for its wartime atrocities, including the sexual enslavement of Asian women at frontline military brothels.

Economic exchange is a vital part of Sino-South Korea relations. China is South Korea’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching $229 billion in 2013 ― more than South Korea’s combined trade with the US and the European Union.

With a pool of China specialists being a must for conglomerates, nearly one million South Koreans were working in China last year.

Seoul’s busiest shopping districts are brimming with Chinese tourists, while restaurant brands have been opening Chinese branches to tap into the world’s second-largest economy.

In line with the ever-deepening partnership, cultural and people-to-people exchanges are kicking into high gear.

Korea’s soft power, driven by the hallyu boom, is increasingly being coupled with China’s dominance in the global culture industry and surging financial firepower.

With China emerging as one of the biggest consumers of Korean pop culture, entertainment agencies have been grooming Chinese singers and actors and striving to improve their promotion and localisation strategies.

Soaring numbers of students are also flocking to China to learn the language, study its customs and expand their job opportunities.

During their summit last month, Park and Xi agreed to reinvigorate the two countries’ cooperation in the fields of humanities, ease visa requirements and operate more youth programs, aiming to raise the annual number of travelers by a combined 10 million by 2016.

But the bilateral ties face uncertainty, with profound differences between the neighbours regarding an increasingly provocative North Korea and a regional security landscape that is changing along with China’s rise as a regional power and its deepening rivalry with the U.S.

Historical feuds also remain a source of contention as China attempts to glorify its history and achieve cultural hegemony to match its growing political and economic clout.

Korean sentiment has turned bitter in recent years as Beijing has increasingly asserted past sovereignty over ancient Korean kingdoms.

“Compared with Korea, China is historically very conscious about civilisation as the cradle of one,” said Hong Seok-pyo, head of the Chinese culture research center at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

“The country appears to be rethinking civilisation and attempting to recapture its soft power, which was eclipsed by the West over the past 100 or so years, buoyed by its newfound economic and political security.”

http://www.asianewsnet.net/news-62991.html?flv=1

 

[eazzy]

Korea Herald and Korea Times have objective views on China except when it's about shared history controversies. But overall they're much better than western newspapers.

 

[Aepsilons]

My dear Koreans, they will dominate your markets, and hurt the domestic brands. I wish the best for Korea.

 

[Aepsilons]

@Red Mahura , my friend. What's your view on this?

 

[IsaacNewton]

My dear Koreans, they will dominate your markets, and hurt the domestic brands. I wish the best for Korea.

But South Korea will have access to a huge market in return.

Japan should try to improve relations with China otherwise, in 5-10 years, Japan will have no room in China's market as everyone will be driving Korean cars, using Korean phones, wearing Korean clothes, and watching Korean tv.

Korea currently take up 9.4% of China's import, while Japan is at 8.3%. A few years ago, it was much higher for Japan than Korea.

 

[xunzi]

If South Korea is friendly with us, we will do everything to court Korea.

 

[Aepsilons]

If South Korea is friendly with us, we will do everything to court Korea.

Oh how very inviting of our beautiful friend. ^^