In the election campaign, Yoon Suk-yeol never missed a chance to provoke China. As an opposition candidate for South Korea’s president, he bluntly called Covid-19 the “Wuhan virus.” He promised to expand an American missile defense system in South Korea that China hates.
And he has been open to more engagement in anti-China security alliances, such as with the United States and Japan. Yoon has been South Korea’s president for a little over a year, and calls for him to take a more neutral stance on China are growing louder.