A woman who arrived from China walks into a COVID-19 testing center at Incheon International Airport in South Korea on Jan. 5. AP-Yonhap

Seoul-Beijing COVID spat escalates following China's new visa curbs

By Jack Lau

South Korea was the first country to take the brunt of Beijing's visa suspensions in retaliation against coronavirus testing requirements imposed by more than 15 countries as cases spiked inside China after the end of its zero-COVID policy.

One analyst said South Korea was targeted first because it could do little to respond to China's retaliation, mainly because of the country's heavy reliance on trade with China. China is South Korea's No. 1 trading partner.

"I think China believes that South Korea greatly relies on it economically, and therefore when China protests, South Korea will comply with its demands. But this thinking might be an illusion," Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University of China, said.

The South Korean government was unlikely to budge on the entry restrictions and would, like other countries, drop the measures when health authorities could ensure no new coronavirus variants were being introduced from China, he said.

Shi said South Korean lawmakers' recent visit to Taiwan also seemed to have played a part in aggravating China.

The South Korean delegation led by Vice Speaker Chung Woo-taik returned to Seoul after a four-day visit to Taiwan from Dec. 28. During its visit, the lawmakers had a 40-minute meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and exchanged ideas about inter-Korean relations and other diplomatic and security issues. China reacted angrily to the parliamentarians' visit to Taiwan.

Shi said he would not rule out China halting short-term visa issuances involving more countries but could not say which might be targeted and when. But the U.S. tended to be the last country to be sanctioned by China despite being the most antagonistic against Beijing.

Passengers arriving from China pass by a COVID-19 testing center at Incheon International Airport in South Korea on Jan. 10. The airport was designated as the only airport from which travelers from China can arrive. AP-Yonhap

Dr. Ryu Yong-wook, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore, said China is aware of the limited options South Korea can take.

"There's hardly anything [South] Korea can do to retaliate against Chinese sanctions," he said, adding that the South was one of the "easier" countries to retaliate against.

But he said he doubted the diplomatic spat would affect ties in the long term, because restrictions would likely drop in two to three months. Relations were already at a low point when South Korea's foreign policy objectives did not align with China's, especially as the U.S.-China rivalry intensified.

Buyidao, an account on Chinese social media platform WeChat that is associated with the Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times, said Wednesday that the fresh entry requirements are an exercise of double standards, and "politicization and weaponization of COVID-19."