Major Taiwanese news group Eastern Media International recently reported that South Korean President Lee Jae-myung just visited China for a state visit and held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on January, 5th. Along with Taiwanese media, South Korean media reported on the “four demands and four promises” agreed during the Lee-Xi meeting.
China has put forward four demands to South Korea, including:
- First, South Korea must publicly reiterate its adherence to China’s “One China Principle,” and South Korea must also adhere to the One China Principle in its press release when Lee Jae-myung meets with Xi Jinping;
- Second, South Korea must promise that its military cooperation with the United States will not be used in the Indo-Pacific region;
- Third, South Korea must promise to refuse to deploy the U.S. Typhon intermediate-range missile system;
- Fourth, China opposes the expansion of the mission of the U.S. military stationed in South Korea.
In return, China made “three promises” and “one non-promise” to South Korea:
- First, China promised South Korea to lift sanctions against subsidiaries of the Hanwha Group;
- second, it promised to abolish the “ban on South Korean entertainment” and allow South Korean performers to perform in China; and
- third, it promised to increase the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea, tripling the number in the first half of the year and quintupling it in the second half.
- Regarding the “one non-promise,” while South Korea hoped to use this visit to secure a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, China did not promise “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Source: ETToday, January 6, 2026
https://www.ettoday.net/news/20260106/3096527.htm