The South Korean leader has sought a reset in relations with China after years of fraught ties under his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol.
Seoul has for decades trodden a fine line between top trading partner China and the United States, its chief defence guarantor.
Relations with China nosedived in 2016 after Seoul agreed to deploy the US-made THAAD missile defence system.
Beijing hit back with sweeping economic retaliation, restricting South Korean businesses and banning group tours.
Cultural spats – including China’s claims over the origins of the Korean staple dish kimchi – have also soured public opinion against Beijing.
In 2022, polling showed for the first time that South Koreans distrusted China more than they did former colonial ruler Japan – a trend that has continued in recent years.
Also clouding relations are Beijing’s close ties with North Korea, which remains technically at war with the South.
Last month, Lee pitched the Chinese leader as a partner in Seoul’s efforts to rekindle frayed ties with the North.
Pyongyang remains the “key issue” in relations, Lee Jae-mook, political science professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, told AFP.
“On that front, there is still an expectation that China could help open a channel for dialogue with Pyongyang,” he said.
And the South Korean leader has appeared keen to avoid weighing in on touchy topics that might anger Beijing.
Asked this month whether he would side with Japan in an escalating row with China, Lee told journalists “taking sides only worsens tensions”.
Source: CNA
