China’s concerns go beyond security; an analysis of China’s response to the deployment of THAAD in ROK

Abstract

This paper argues that China’s concerns over the issue of THAAD should be taken seriously by both ROK and the United States, for as a rising power globally, China would not accept any sort of arrangement of affairs in which “its core security interests” are at stake while it has worked so dedicatedly to achieve the end of the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula. In addition, Chinese leaders and the public can’t allow passively the deployment of THAAD in view of the territorial disputes with other countries in the East and the South China Seas, which would lead to see China incompetent in the world affairs. Moreover, Chinese leaders have since insisted talking to DPRK through the “third channel diplomacy” which is of exclusive China’s influence. Given all these considerations, the paper aims to verify that China's position on THAAD would be properly understood from Beijing's perspectives such as the regional strategic equilibrium, China as a responsible player on the issues involved, China’s efforts to settle the disputes among nations by peace, and bring mutual respect and equality in the context of America’s pivoting strategy in Asia. In brief, as the formal statement from the Foreign Ministry of China recently clarified, ROK and the United States need “to take China’s reasonable concerns into consideration and stop the deployment process immediately”.