| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article reconstructs an ideational trajectory in which China's views of the Korean-American alliance evolved during the last 60 years. The article first surveys China's general policy toward alliance and alliance-making. The article then traces the evolutionary path of Chinese views in the following four periods: (1) the Cold War era (1950s-1960s); (2) transformative years (early 1970s-mid-1990s); (3) the period of a strained alliance (late 1990s-late 2000s); and (4) an era of great reversal (late 2000s-present). Principally, the article suggests that China's view of the Korean-American alliance was intense antagonism during the Cold War era, although it was significantly watered down during the transformative years of Sino-South Korean rapprochement. With the normalization of relations between Beijing and Seoul in 1992 and a decade of progressive rule (1998-2007) in South Korea, China's view encompassed some wishful thinking about a gradually diluted alliance. The strong comeback of the conservatives in South Korean politics since 2008, however, shattered such optimism and re-awoke Beijing to some cold realities. China's view of the Korea-American alliance may grow more negative in tandem with US-China relations, irrespective of the official rhetoric of sovereignty regarding alliance and alliance-making.
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