Following the departure of former Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming last month, Beijing has yet to announce its new envoy to Seoul. Whoever it will be, the next envoy faces existing and new challenges as well as uncertainties posed by increasing geopolitical tensions, according to diplomatic observers in both countries and around the world.
Some scholars also suggested that it would be beneficial if the envoy has a broad understanding of the international situation, extending beyond general knowledge of the Korean Peninsula.
However, they also noted that the personal style of a Chinese envoy is less important in the country’s diplomacy than the message that Beijing aims to convey.
On July 25, China said during a meeting between the two countries’ vice foreign ministers Ma Zhaoxu and Kim Hong-kyun that it will “appoint an appropriate 한국을 and excellent candidate through internal procedures” as its envoy to Seoul, according to a foreign ministry official in Seoul.
A PR official at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul told The Korea Times that the embassy currently has no information about the next Chinese envoy.
Xing, who served as China’s envoy for more than four years from January 2020, had an outspoken profile and raised controversies due to his confrontational remarks last year when he blamed Seoul for making a “wrong bet” by leaning toward the U.S.