China is a rooster, Japan is a bug...but what about Korea?

Qistory — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 14:58:40 +0900

One of the funniest stories I heard from a Chinese friend was about a map of China. If you look closely at the map of China, it looks like a rooster, and the Chinese refer to the shape of the map as "China is a rooster. Japan is the bug," and China, the rooster, is the prize that will eat the bug. After hearing that, I looked at the map of Northeast Asia again and again.

If China is the rooster and Japan is the worm, then what is Korea and the Korean Peninsula? If you look closely enough, you can see that the worm is biting the rooster's neck, and it looks like a beard. To extend this fun map story, China can eat Japan, but it can't eat Korea. What can the rooster do about his beard, it can only keep him in check. What can Japan, the worm trying to be eaten by the rooster, do to defend against the rooster's threat? By utilizing the rooster's beard.

The current situation of the three countries in Northeast Asia strangely reflects this map story. South Korea and Japan have mixed reactions to China's rapid development since the reform and opening up, with South Korea seeing it as an opportunity and Japan as a crisis. If you look at the actual trilateral trade balance, Japan is running a trade deficit with China and making up for it with a trade surplus with South Korea, and South Korea is running a large surplus with China and a similar deficit with Japan.

The big dog, China, is growing fast. No one doubts their continued growth and development in the early 21st century. It is clear that the world's most obvious market in the early 21st century is China, so those of us neighboring China will have mixed fortunes in the early 21st century depending on how we capitalize on a growing China. So what kind of relationship will we establish with China?

To answer that question, we return to the map, and Korea can and should be the chin or beard of China. If you grab the beard and drag it, even the biggest rooster in the world won't be able to dance. Geopolitically, we already have these conditions. But we haven't resolved our history of division, and China is making good use of the two homogeneous peninsulas and making it harder for us to dance. It is utilizing the logic that if you cut a beard in half, you can't pull the beard out. China's foreign policy toward the Korean Peninsula is to maintain the current situation as it is, neither more nor less.

On the other hand, if the Korean Peninsula's integration or free movement is realized in the future, it will have the effect of a strong "beard" that can pull the continent. We can then move China, and we can move China to defend Japan. We need to somehow get a firm grip on China's nerve center and put ourselves in a position to move it, to lead it.

The geopolitical conditions to lead the continent are already in place, but the more important condition is human resources. Leading China in the knowledge information society is possible only through prepared human resources, and we need to prepare our idea bank to surpass China's idea bank. Therefore, Samsung's "genius management theory" can be said to be a management theory that is appropriate for the current situation. Along with these strategies and policies that emphasize talent and gather talent, Korea must raise the level of education in Korea and build an education system that fosters great talent to build the human resources that are essential to the times. In addition, we should seek to actively utilize the Korean people in China and Korean Americans in China in public relations. If we can utilize the network of Koreans and Korean Americans in China, we can effectively control the inside of China. In other words, we need to improve the analytical ability of "Jipiji" in public relations.

Despite the economic crisis, somehow we are born in the most favorable period in history. If we become wiser and smarter, we can develop much further than we are now and have much greater influence. And we could contribute to the development of not only Northeast Asia, but also human history.

If you hold him by the beard, you can't move him, but if you don't hold him by the beard, a few shakes of the rooster's head will send him flying off. We must not forget this. At present, we have a situation where China is shaken by the slightest shake. This is a pathetic reality of holding the baton but not being in charge. This is because there are many Korean politicians and bureaucrats who have been given positions that they do not deserve.