China’s Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming said on Thursday that China hopes South Korea will follow its stated principle of openness in joining in the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), adding that China attaches great importance to the needs of South Korean companies and personnel in China.  

He made the remarks during a speech at a local gathering attended by multiple senior executives of major South Korean companies, including Samsung, SK and Hyundai, as well as experts and scholars from financial and economic circles. 

Regarding Seoul’s move in joining IPEF on Monday, Xing said that both China and South Korea are beneficiaries of free trade and multilateralism, and have achieved their own development in the process of economic globalization. 

“Now, under the banner of values, the US suddenly wants to create a new regional economic mechanism that excludes China. I believe anyone with a discerning eye can clearly see its true purpose. It is natural for China to be concerned about this, and it is bound to respond,” the ambassador said.

“We have noticed that the South Korean side emphasized that it will participate in IPEF based on the principles of openness, transparency and inclusiveness, and we hope that it will do what it says,” he noted.

Economic and trade cooperation serves the stabilizer of China-South Korean relations. “We expect the South Korean side to work with us to maintain a common industrial chain and supply chain, make good use of various platforms to share China’s huge market opportunities,” Xing said.

Many South Korean companies in COVID-hit Shanghai and its surrounding areas have gradually resumed work and production, Xing said, adding that with the stabilization of the epidemic situation in various places and gradual effect release of economic stabilization policies, the production and operation of South Korean companies in China will surely flourish, and that exchanges and cooperation between the two countries will usher in new rapid development.

In 2021, bilateral trade between China and South Korea reached $362.35 billion, an increase of 26.9 percent year-on-year, official data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs showed. And that could be further boosted as the two countries work on several trade facilitating measures.

Shu Jueting, a spokesperson from China’s Ministry of Commerce, said earlier in January that China and South Korea have close trade and investment ties, with extensive cooperation in electronics, machinery, automobiles and textiles, among other fields.

In June 2020, a demonstration zone for China-South Korea cooperation was unveiled in Northeast China’s Jilin province, where a number of industrial parks have been planned for bilateral collaboration in medicine, IT, high-end equipment and intelligent manufacturing, among other fields.

Global Times