ABSTRACT
South Korea has been regarded as one of the countries most successful in
engaging China, despite its peculiar status as a divided nation. Seoul’s evolution during the last two decades from China’s permanent enemy to its princi-
pal ‘‘partner for comprehensive cooperation’’ (quanmian hezuoxing huoban)
has been dramatic. The ever-expanding bilateral trade – amounting to
US$100 billion in 2005 – and investment relationships are only part of the
story. The popular and favorable perceptions that South Koreans and the
Chinese hold for each other has turned their burgeoning bilateralism into a
strategic dilemma for Seoul in terms of its security alliance with the US.1
