South Korea’s Lee urges ‘friendly competition’ with China ahead of Xi meeting

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said Seoul aimed to work with Beijing to advance practical cooperation in trade, supply chains and people-to-people exchanges to improve ties based on “friendly competition” and “equal cooperation”.

Lee made the remarks in an interview with China’s state-run Xinhua news agency published a day ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arrival in the South Korean city of Busan on Thursday. This marks Xi’s first visit to South Korea in 11 years, following his last trip in July 2014.

Lee is expected to hold a summit with Xi on Saturday in the coastal city of Gyeongju on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.

In the interview, Lee expressed hopes of advancing the “mature development” of bilateral ties, while noting that as China’s industrial competitiveness and hi-tech capabilities rose sharply, competition between businesses in the two countries had grown.

“However, I believe South Korea and China can pool wisdom to mature and advance the strategic partnership based on ‘friendly competition’ and ‘equal cooperation’,” he said, according to the Xinhua report.

“In particular, I believe there is an urgent need to explore new complementary cooperation models in economic and trade sectors to further energise enterprises and industries in both countries.”