Korean Responses to Historic Narratives of Sino-Korean Relations and China's New International Relations Thinking

Abstract

This chapter will provide a short overview of the long history of Sino—Korean relations and discuss how this historical legacy affects current Korean attitudes towards China’s rise and changing role in the East Asian region. For much of its history Korea had been subordinated (sometimes willingly, in other cases unwillingly, and usually nominally) to the Sinocentric world order. All this changed with the occupation of Korea by the Japanese between 1910 and 1945 and the subsequent Korean War (1950–1953) that ended Korea’s (at least its southern half’s) historical subordination to Chinese political and cultural hegemony. More recently the response of Korea towards China’s revival and changing ..