Commentary: South Korea’s tightrope walk between China and the US

But that would antagonise China, and if the US were to ever retrench from East Asia, South Korea would be left exposed to a large, angry China. By not overtly committing to the US, he has mollified China enough to retain some manoeuvring room for South Korea. But the larger question is whether Mr Xi is prepared to make strategic, rather than minor economic concessions to South Korea in order to keep it less aligned with the US than Japan or Taiwan are.