Almost every Korean president visiting China will regard Shanghai as a must-visit destination. Because in the history of the founding of South Korea, Shanghai is a city that cannot be avoided.
1919, " Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea " was established in Shanghai. According to the expression of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea today, the Provisional Government established in Shanghai that year was the root of the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea, which is the legal system. In fact, it is not just Shanghai. The "Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea" back and forth, once moved eight cities in China. Despite such a profound historical origin, China and South Korea have been isolated or even hostile for more than 40 years in the last century.
Former Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Zhang Tingyan:
Politically, of course we were in a hostile relationship at that time. We did not recognize the existence of the Republic of Korea in diplomacy with South Korea and had no contact with each other. At that time, we not only had no diplomatic contact with them, but our diplomatic envoys did not shake hands with him or exchange greetings outside.
With the arrival of the summer of 1971, a big event shocked the world, which also made people realize that the times are about to usher in earth-shaking changes. The shock brought by
" Nixon impacts " also broke the balance between the Korean Peninsula and even East Asia. Following the United States, Japan has also begun to seek to restore normal bilateral relations with China. In September 1972, Japan rushed to establish diplomatic relations with China before the United States. At this point, the former iron triangle of South Korea, Japan and the United States has fallen apart. South Korea has also begun to look for opportunities to release goodwill to China.
Researcher of China Institute of International Studies Yang Xiyu:
There is an iron law in international relations, that is, the existence of alliances must have a prerequisite, which is a common enemy. If there is no common enemy, there is no need to establish and maintain an alliance. This does not mean that the Korean Peninsula is a problem in modern and modern international relations.
Former Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Zhang Tingyan:
Park Chung-hee During the administration of the president, he also sent messages to China through a third country, hoping to improve the relationship between the two countries. It should be said that from this point of view, in order to ensure peace and stability on the peninsula, South Korea still hopes to be able to contact and communicate with us earlier and even establish diplomatic relations.
Given the domestic and international situation at that time, China did not accept the olive branch sent by South Korea. Shortly thereafter, with the hasty death of President Park Chung-hee, the normalization of bilateral relations that South Korea expected also slowed down, but South Korea has not stopped seeking breakthroughs.
President Park Chung-hee
Researcher of China Institute of International Studies Yang Xiyu:
Who is more proactive in contacting Korea and China? South Korea is more proactive, and the Chinese government is not as proactive as South Korea. This is one aspect. But you have to look at the private sector again. The popularity of the Chinese and Korean diplomatic relations is no less than that of the Korean and Korean civilians. Therefore, the whole pattern is that the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea is jointly promoted by the government and the private sector. From a Korean perspective, it should be said that the official is also very popular and the people are also very popular. From a Chinese perspective, the official popularity is not as popular as the South Korean official, but the popularity of the people is no less than that of the South Korean private, which is a very strange phenomenon at that time.
In 1978, China began reform and opening up , and soon, bilateral trade between China and South Korea also quietly began. Although China-South Korea trade was still in its infancy at that time, after thirty years of Iron Curtain blockade, the opening of this window was of great significance. Of course, outside the economic field, some ice is not so easy to break. However, in order to bring the relationship closer, both sides have made great efforts.
In July 1982, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs drafted the "Request for Adjusting the Practices on South Korea in International Multilateral Activities". This document made suggestions that in the future, South Korea is a member of the organization for any international multilateral activities held by China under international organizations. China can agree to send people to China to participate, and Chinese personnel can also be invited to South Korea to participate in similar activities. It can be said that from this time as the starting point, China began to consider adjusting its relations with South Korea in multilateral exchanges.
Not long after, an accidental emergency led to the first official contact between China and South Korea.
1983 Zhuo Changren hijacking
On May 5, 1983, a China Civil Aviation Flight 296 from Shenyang to Shanghai was hijacked while passing through the Korean Peninsula. This is the first vicious incident of hijacking a civil aviation passenger plane since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The hijacking criminal Zhuo Changren is from Shenyang, Liaoning. He was reported for economic crimes and carefully planned the hijacking in order to escape sanctions. Zhuo Changren's destination was Taiwan, but he asked the plane to fly to the South Korean capital first. At that time, South Korea had no diplomatic relations with China, but had good relations with Taiwan. In Zhuo Changren's eyes, South Korea was the best transit station.
Former Director of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China Xu Guangjian:
We are all worried, including the central government and the whole country, we are worried about the safety of passengers and crew of the hijacked planes. We have no idea whether we can return home quickly.
Former Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Zhang Tingyan:
The central government made a decision and immediately sent the Chinese civil aviation delegation to Seoul for negotiations, asking for people, planes, and hijacking criminals.
The plane carried 105 passengers. For the sake of their lives, relevant Chinese parties immediately contacted the South Korean side and expressed their hope to go to South Korea for negotiations. However, at that time, China and South Korea were still in a freezing period. China did not recognize the concept of the Republic of Korea, but called it South Korea.
Former Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Zhang Tingyan:
There is no embassy, no information exchange, and you cannot make international calls. Moreover, the international calls at that time were not as smooth as it is now in 1983. The contacts at that time were all through Hong Kong, China's Xinhua News Agency and the South Korean Consulate General in Hong Kong. We conveyed information through this channel.
Former Director of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China Xu Guangjian:
So how South Korea plans to deal with this matter and whether it can be released? We didn’t know before we went there, so the situation at that time should be very complicated, so the working group members also felt that this matter was unpredictable.
hijacking criminal Zhuo Changren
May 5, 1983, it was South Korea's Children's Day. On this day, most of the citizens of Seoul were resting in the suburbs or at home. At one o'clock in the afternoon, a sharp air defense alarm suddenly sounded over the city, which made the citizens of Seoul suddenly tense up. They didn't know at the time that the false alarm was caused by a hijacked Chinese civil aviation aircraft.
In the next four hours, through the communication system between international civil aviation agencies, China and South Korea exchanged many telegrams. Kim Cheol-yong, who was the director of the Aviation Administration of the Ministry of Transportation of South Korea at the time, recalled that he felt unprecedented excitement when he received the telegram from China, because the words "Republic of Korea" were clearly marked on the telegram sent by China. China proposed that it hopes to go to South Korea to discuss related matters.
On May 7, 1983, two days after the hijacking incident, a delegation led by Shen Tu, Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, arrived at Gimpo Airport, South Korea. This was the first time that the official delegation of the People's Republic of China set foot on South Korea's territory. However, none of the diplomats in the delegation used their real identities.
Former Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Zhang Tingyan:
People from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have gone, all of whom are civil aviation identities, and basically all are civil aviation identities.
Former Director of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China Xu Guangjian:
They also sent a diplomat to our place to attack suddenly and rushed over and asked me, "Mr. Xu, do you know me?" When I saw that he was representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, and they were also members of the delegation attending the international conference. Later, of course, I pretended, and said I didn’t know you, I’m sorry, so I got through it, but in fact they knew it very well.
Chairman of the Korea-China Goodwill Association Lee Shiji:
At that time, the two countries did not establish diplomatic relations, so in a very difficult situation, the two countries negotiated. South Korea's handling attitude was very sincere and actively cooperated with China to deal with the problem.
Xu Guangjian
Xu Guangjian still remembers that at the beginning of the talks, Kong Luming, the first deputy minister of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave a very beautiful opening remark. He quoted a sentence from "The Analects of Confucius", "It's a great pleasure to have friends coming from afar!" In addition, Kong Luming also said happily: "We will give you your passengers, your planes, and your crew, no problem!"
Former Director of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, the former Director of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. Xu Guangjian:
The planes and crew members they decided to be hijacked were injured, which is the wounded person who was beaten by the hijacker, and all the passengers. They agreed to let our working group take it back, agree to let us take it back to our country. This is equivalent to giving you a briefing, just say don’t worry, we will not deduct any passengers.
Former Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Zhang Tingyan:
Of course, according to the laws of our country, the hijackers are Chinese and should be handled by us ourselves, but considering the relationship with Taiwan, Zhuo Changren will not give it to us. We made some concessions later, and Zhuo Changren left it to deal with it.
However, just as the negotiations between the two sides were about to end, a new problem arose, and a memorandum with the words Republic of Korea was handed over to the Chinese representative.
Former Director of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China Xu Guangjian:
From the heading and title of the draft agreement to the final signature, there are a total of six or seven Republic of Korea, and this matter is difficult to deal with.
Former Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Zhang Tingyan:
South Korea wanted to write as much as possible into the Republic of Korea in the middle of the documents of both sides. Then as soon as you sign it, it is equivalent to admitting him, right?
After repeated modifications and verifications all night, the Chinese negotiation team only retained the "Republic of Korea" at the signed place, changed other places to "Seoul", and also changed the "People's Republic of China" at the signed place to "China Civil Aviation". On May 10, China and South Korea finally reached an agreement on the hijacking incident. During the negotiations, the signals of goodwill sent by both sides also gave a good start to improve China-South Korea bilateral relations in the future.
Researcher at China Institute of International Studies Yang Xiyu:
The relationship between South Korea and China is not a policy change of one country and one country, but what? This has affected the Korean Peninsula and even , Northeast Asia, .
How did China and South Korea officially establish diplomatic relations with a good start, and what unknown stories happened in the middle?
This Saturday night 22:00
Phoenix TV Chinese Channel "Ace Broadcast" specially presented
"Born to New Year - A Chronicle of the Establishment of Diplomacy between China and South Korea"
Please pay attention!
Producer: Liu Gefei
Director: That
Editor: yii
Editor: yii
