Identification conundrum behind South Korea’s THAAD deployment

Jin Kai, "Identification conundrum behind South Korea’s THAAD deployment," globaltimes.cn

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Excerpt:

A pressing issue for China right now is to find a way to deal with a South Korea that is very likely to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on its soil. There have been active discussions in political, diplomatic, military and strategic circles. Having lived in South Korea for a long time, I am paying more attention to how China and South Korea view and identify with each other and their future relations. ...

The key lies in how South Koreans view themselves. In this sense, it is understandable that the Chinese public felt astonished and betrayed after South Korea announced it may deploy the THAAD system. In fact, a charm offensive in diplomatic and economic fronts is unlikely to prompt South Korean society, in particular the conservatives, to fundamentally change their perception of China.

East Asia needs an "epistemic community." From the perspective of constructivism, in the process of building the community, countries are able to better perceive themselves and others and eventually accept each other. The influence of these on national policy will in turn affect or promote the identification between countries. The public diplomacy practiced in international relations today can be seen as an important approach to seeking and implementing common cognition. In the long run, building an "epistemic community" can be a model of incremental change that produces substantial effects on the policy of a country. ...