Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

During the past more than one year, Chinese and South Korean top leaders have met five times and reached a common consensus on major hotspot issues including regional peace and stability, denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). Beijing-Seoul relations have steered away from a situation in which there is "cold politics and warm trade" to "warm politics and trade."

Optimistic analysts have even speculated that the time is ripe for establishing a China-South Korea comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with the forthcoming official visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Seoul for the first time.

Since China and South Korea established diplomatic ties in 1992, their relations have enjoyed rapid development. Benign political relations have provided a solid foundation and guarantee for their economic cooperation. The bilateral trade volume increased from merely $5 billion in 1992 to $274.2 billion in 2013.

Nevertheless, China and South Korea have experienced turbulence in the development of their relations. Though former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak announced the establishment of a strategic cooperative partnership during his China visit in 2008, his administration was committed to strengthening the US-South Korean alliance, following the former's "rebalancing to Asia" policy and adopting a confrontational strategy regarding its relations with North Korea.

All of these maneuvers have compressed Beijing's diplomatic space, enormously denting the political mutual trust between the two neighbors. China-South Korean relations have once again taken on a phenomenon of "cold politics and warm trade," as occurred with Beijing-Tokyo ties.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has drawn lessons and experience from her predecessors and has chosen a relatively balanced policy in diplomatic affairs, including the simmering bitter South-North ties. Seoul has been striving to maintain a balance between Beijing and Washington to mitigate China's misgivings. In dealing with Pyongyang, Park has abandoned the "Sunshine Policy" by former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun as well as the "confrontation policy" of Lee Myung-bak, but spelled out a middle-of-the-road approach.

On the one hand, Sino-South Korean relations are restrained by the new type of great power relations between Beijing and Washington.

Xi proposed the establishment of a new model of great power relations during his US trip last year, with a view to achieving win-win progress by respecting each other's core interests. However, as the traditional hegemon, the US has long held a suspicious attitude toward China, which enjoys sustained development. The Obama administration announced a "pivot" to Asia in 2010, one important link of which is to reinforce its alliances with traditional Asian allies.

South Korea has been taking its alliance with Washington as a basic national policy due to its own security considerations. The North Korea nuclear crisis in recent years has helped to some degree strengthen the traditional Washington-Seoul alliance. Now that China and the US have yet to successfully build a new model of great power relations, South Korea, which is both a US ally and a strategic partner of China, will confront a severe dilemma if a collision happens between the two great powers.

Plus, the FTA between China and South Korea has made little progress. The booming development of economic and trade ties calls for the two countries to sign the FTA as soon as possible. But still we have seen little prospect despite long-drawn-out negotiations.

South Korea has seen an annual trade volume of more than $200 billion with China, surpassing its total volume with the US and Japan. Furthermore, it has obtained a surplus of $40 to 50 billion from its trade with China. It is fair to say that Beijing-Seoul trade is of vital significance to the latter's economic development.

China's rise has been an indisputable fact. Countries can choose to be friends but have no choice about neighbors. The real question is, as a country with long-term close relations with China, will South Korea continue with the policy of "relying on China for economic growth and counting on the US for security guarantees" or adjust its policy to integrate politics and economics?

The author is Vice Director of the Center for Korean Studies, Fudan University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn