To analyse. Immediate neighbors of China and main allies of the United States in Northeast Asia, South Korea and Japan are placed in a delicate position by the confrontation between Beijing and Washington. The two countries weave between the obligations imposed by their alliance with the United States and the need to spare their large Asian neighbor.
An illustration of this dilemma, the resolution adopted on 1er February by the Japanese Parliament, expressing ” preoccupation ” on “the serious human rights situation”, “especially in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong”. This text, which manages the tour de force of not explicitly mentioning China, nevertheless aroused a protest from Beijing.
This ambiguity is found with the Beijing Winter Olympics, which open on Friday, February 4, without South Korean President Moon Jae-in or Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. But neither South Korea nor Japan endorsed the path of boycotting Washington, London and Canberra.
Human rights are not historically Seoul’s and Tokyo’s preferred instrument of international communication. In South Korea, during the time of the military dictatorships (1946-1987), the question did not arise. Like Seoul, Tokyo had espoused the “ethics” of the Cold War, of which the eradication of communism was the priority, and contented itself, at best, with deploring the exactions of the dictatorships supported by Washington in Asia.
Miscellaneous requirements
In 1980, in South Korea, following the violent repression by elite troops of the civilian population of Gwangju in rebellion against the dictatorship, Japan reacted little. This repression, which officially claimed two hundred lives (a thousand, according to opponents), was more quickly forgotten abroad than that of Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. While the latter aroused indignation in the West, Tokyo remained discreet in its condemnation, contenting itself with suspending its loans to China for a few months.
In a March 1990 meeting with US President George Bush Sr., then Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu stressed the need to reintegrate China into the international community and encourage it to pursue economic reforms, thus promoting greater respect for human rights. An optimism swept away since Xi Jinping came to power in 2013.
The Japanese “reserve” is observed after the coups in Thailand in 2014 and in Burma in 2021. South Korea has adopted a similar attitude. Criticized by Seoul, the Burmese generals’ coup did not deter the South Korean authorities from strengthening ties with Rangoon, as part of its “new policy towards the South” – that is, Southeast Asia.
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