Limited agreements and careful rhetoric highlight an effort to contain friction without strategic concessions
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday was less of an attempt to reshape bilateral relations than a calculated effort to preserve maneuvering space as geopolitical uncertainty and procedural erosion place growing constraints on U.S. allies.
The meeting in Beijing, Lee’s second encounter with Xi in two months and his first state visit of the year, produced 15 signed documents, including 14 memoranda of understanding covering trade, transport, technology, environment and people-to-people exchanges, as well as a separate agreement returning a pair of Qing dynasty-era stone lion statues to China.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday was less of an attempt to reshape bilateral relations than a calculated effort to preserve maneuvering space as geopolitical uncertainty and procedural erosion place growing constraints on U.S. allies.
The meeting in Beijing, Lee’s second encounter with Xi in two months and his first state visit of the year, produced 15 signed documents, including 14 memoranda of understanding covering trade, transport, technology, environment and people-to-people exchanges, as well as a separate agreement returning a pair of Qing dynasty-era stone lion statues to China.
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