SEOUL ¨C No incident has more deeply scarred contemporary South Korean thinking than China¡¯s imposition of economic sanctions after Seoul agreed in 2016 to deploy a U.S. missile defense system.
At every opportunity, South Koreans explain that they paid too high a price for that decision and warn that their economy cannot survive similar blows in the future.
It¡¯s an understandable reaction ¡ª but misguided. South Korea¡¯s defiance may have generated short-term pain, but China ultimately retreated. There are lessons to be learned from this episode ¡ª and others like it ¡ª but a decision to not defend national interests is not one of them.
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