BEIJING ¨C Last week, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, despite the opposition of her country¡¯s closest ally, the United States, stood together with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tiananmen Square to watch the military parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of World War II¡¯s end in Asia. The decision provided the most visible image yet of an emerging China-South Korea alliance, one that China believes may prevent the region from sliding into a cold war.
The region¡¯s other major actors ¡ª the U.S., Japan and even North Korea ¡ª look on this blossoming friendship with considerable dread. The U.S. worries that China is driving a wedge between its strongest Asian allies, South Korea and Japan, undermining America¡¯s capacity to offset China¡¯s rising military power.
Likewise, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is concerned that his country¡¯s closest neighbor is drifting into China¡¯s orbit. And, indeed, Park has consistently spurned Abe by refusing to hold a bilateral summit with him, in protest over Japan¡¯s alleged historical revisionism, particularly with regard to the Korean ¡°comfort women¡± who served as sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
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