Hong Kong national security law heightens South Korea’s painful choice: US or China?

Anxieties are growing in South Korea that it will be caught in the middle of tensions between the world’s two most powerful countries, as Seoul comes under pressure from Washington to join US-led attempts to sideline China.

The United States is not only an indispensable ally for South Korea in its stand-off with the nuclear-armed North, it is also the country’s second largest export market and absorbs 13.5 per cent of its total shipments. But China is South Korea’s largest trading partner by far, purchasing a quarter of its exports, and its cooperation is also crucial in preventing the North from military adventurism.

“We have to walk a tightrope between the US and China fighting for global hegemony. We can’t afford to alienate either one of the two.”

Seoul’s position has been complicated by Beijing’s proposed national security law for Hong Kong that would ban treason, require the city’s government to set up institutions to safeguard sovereignty and allow mainland agencies to operate there.

Critics fear the law spells the end of the “one country, two systems” governance blueprint under which Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not seen on the Chinese mainland. President Donald Trump has said his administration will soon “do something” about the situation by the end of the week, while US senators have proposed a bill with sanctions to “defend Hong Kong’s autonomy”.