Nectar Gan, CNN
China\u2019s top diplomat has urged Japan and South Korea to foster a sense of \u201cstrategic autonomy\u201d from the West and cooperate with Beijing to \u201crevitalize Asia,\u201d amid rising tensions between China and the two neighboring American allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The comments by Wang Yi on Monday come as Japan and South Korea forge closer relations with the United States \u2013 and mend ties with each other<\/a> \u2013 driven by common concerns about Beijing\u2019s growing influence and assertiveness in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a video<\/a> shared<\/a> by Chinese state media, Wang told Japanese and South Korean guests attending a trilateral forum in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao that most Americans and Europeans can\u2019t tell China, Japan and South Korea apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo matter how blonde you dye your hair, how sharp you shape your nose, you can never become a European or American, you can never become a Westerner,\u201d Wang said. \u201cWe must know where our roots lie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wang called for Japan and South Korea to work together with China to \u201cprosper together, revitalize East Asia, revitalize Asia and benefit the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wang was speaking on the sidelines of the International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation, an annual event organized by Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul since 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To experts on the region, Wang\u2019s racialized comments harken back to the sentiment of racial pan-East Asian solidarity against the West in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cImperial Japan really leaned into that as it expanded, eventually declaring a \u2018Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere\u2019, with conquest styled as win-win racial liberation,\u201d said Joel Atkinson, a professor specializing in Northeast Asian international politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe reality, of course, was Japanese ultra-nationalists destroyed all that good will in China and Korea in their attempt to replace Western influence with a new Japanese hegemony.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Atkinson said Japan and South Korea are likely to find Wang\u2019s pitch \u201cunpersuasive\u201d given a long list of assertive actions Beijing has taken toward both countries over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnsurprisingly, China\u2019s Northeast Asian neighbors are now resisting Beijing\u2019s attempt to change the regional order in its favor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBoth have made it clear they feel safer with the US around, and have no interest in abandoning their alliances to instead rely on Beijing\u2019s goodwill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2018Strategic autonomy\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n