South Korea’s presidential candidates face balancing act amid rising anti-China sentiment

With an election days away, the two leading candidates must negotiate pitfalls of a reliance on US for security and on China for trade

When Moon Jae-in, the outgoing president of South Korea, returned home from Washington in May last year, his foreign minister, Chung Eui-yong, rushed to clarify the mention of Taiwan in his joint statement with Joe Biden - a highly sensitive subject for South Korea's biggest trading partner, China.

The Taiwan-related expressions [in the joint statement] are very general expressions'," Chung said a day after the statement was released. As if this clarification was not enough, Chung's deputy, Choi Jong-gun, added: China would appreciate the fact that South Korea does not see China as an enemy."