Managing volatile asymmetry: China’s emergence from the Korean dilemma

Abstract

Among the most complicated issues in contemporary Chinese foreign policy is that of the Korean Peninsula and North Korea in particular. Critics have long complained, often internally, that China dare not use, and did not know how to use, the leverage it possessed. Why was this the case given that the relationship with North Korea is an asymmetric one with China the much more powerful side? Has China managed this asymmetry better more recently, and why? This article tries to address these questions. The relationship changed significantly in recent years when the Xi Jinping leadership decided to take unprecedented measures. Those actions have been consequential. China has emerged from being embarrassed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile development to re-establishing itself as central to Korean and Northeast Asian security.