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President Lee Jae Myung (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping hold a summit at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. (Yonhap)


BEIJING ?President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday that his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping would serve as a foundation stone for restorin 바다이야기게임장 g Korea-China relations and ushering in a new phase in bilateral ties.
Lee and Xi sat down for their second high-stakes summit in roughly two months, following their first meeting on Nov. 1, 야마토연타 in the first leader-level diplomacy for both Seoul and Beijing this year.
The two leaders convened this time at the Great Hall of the People during Lee’s four-day state visit to China ? a f 오션릴게임 ollow-up to Xi’s state visit to South Korea for the 2025 APEC summit.
“This summit will serve as an important turning point in making 2026 the first year of a full restoration of Korea-China 황금성사이트 relations,” Lee told Xi. “We will continue our unwavering efforts to develop our strategic cooperative partnership into an irreversible trend of the times.”
Lee said he hoped to work with X 릴게임5만 i “in step with the changing currents of the times, to open a new phase in the development of Korea-China relations.”
“Building on the trust between President Xi and myself, we will work to firmly strengthen the foundation of public goodwill that underpins the political basis of Korea-China relations,” Lee said.
Lee added that Seoul would keep cooperation on a more even footing in areas that touch everyday life, stepping up efforts to tackle bread-and-butter concerns.
“At the same time, we should work together to pursue practical and achievable approaches to peace on the Korean Peninsula. We should make joint contributions to peace ? the fundamental foundation for shared prosperity and growth,” Lee said.
The Lee-Xi summit reflects parallel aims for Seoul. The first is to enlist Beijing in a more active role in bringing North Korea back to the negotiating table, an effort with added urgency in light of US President Donald Trump’s planned trip to China.
At the same time, Lee is seeking to reinforce and broaden an economic partnership still anchored in dense supply-chain ties, even as intensifying US-China strategic competition redraws the region’s trade map and creates obstacles to economic cooperation.



South Korean President Lee Jae Myung (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands prior to their summit talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. (Pool photo via Yonhap)



Seoul, Beijing launch commercial dialogue

Following the summit, the two sides signed 14 memorandums of understanding, spanning economic and trade cooperation, science and technology and the digital sector, intellectual property as well as food and quarantine measures.
The agreements also covered other crucial areas with a direct impact on daily life ? including public safety, the environment and climate as well as transportation infrastructure ? alongside initiatives to share policy approaches toward children.
A memorandum was inked to launch a new commercial cooperation dialogue, turning what had been sporadic ministerial-level talks between South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and China’s Ministry of Commerce into a regular channel for managing economic and trade issues.
Seoul and Beijing also signed a memorandum to strengthen cooperation for Korea-China industrial parks, aimed at promoting trade and investment and supporting entry into third-country markets to deepen industrial and supply-chain ties.
A separate memorandum expanded the scope of cooperation from traditional small and medium-sized enterprises to startups, including efforts to identify promising areas for startup collaboration and to foster innovation-driven partnerships.
A flurry of deals followed, underscoring that the visit was designed as much to rebuild the machinery of economic cooperation as to produce summit symbolism.
Lee’s state visit included in tow a business delegation comprising roughly 200 members. It was the first Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry-led delegation to China since December 2019, when a similar trip was organized on the occasion of a trilateral summit that also included Japan.
The Korea-China business forum took place hours before the Lee-Xi summit, with Lee and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in attendance.
The forum drew business heavyweights including the heads of South Korea’s four largest conglomerates ? Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor Group and LG ? and executives from the fashion, entertainment and gaming industries.



President Lee Jae Myung speaks at the Korea-China Business Forum at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Monday. (Yonhap)



From AI to bread-and-butter ties

Meeting business tycoons ahead of the forum, Lee called on Seoul and Beijing to “open a new route” for economic and industrial cooperation, seeking to jump-start stagnant trade ties amid rapid technological shifts and growing supply-chain uncertainty.
“Technology is changing direction at speed, and supply chains have become as difficult to predict as shifting tides. If we rely only on past momentum, we risk missing critical turning points,” Lee told business leaders. “Now is the time to set course for a new route. Hesitation is natural, but without changing direction, we may never discover a new path at all.”
Lee highlighted the trajectory of Korea-China trade as proof that the economic partnership needs fresh momentum. Bilateral trade between Seoul, which had climbed steadily since 2015, peaked at around $310.3 billion in 2022 before slipping into a downturn from 2023.
“Korea-China trade has plateaued at around the $300 billion level, which is precisely why charting new routes ? and opening new markets ? has become imperative,” Lee said.
Lee underscored that the next phase should pair high-tech areas such as artificial intelligence with everyday industries like consumer and cultural products.
“Consumer goods ? including household items, beauty products and food ? as well as cultural content such as film, music, games and sports, can open up new avenues for breaking through,” Lee said. “Artificial intelligence, meanwhile, will broaden and deepen cooperation across sectors ranging from manufacturing to services.”



South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng join a group photo session during a forum between businesspeople of South Korea and China at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Monday. (Yonhap)



Big hitters at biz forum

The business forum was co-hosted by the KCCI and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, with an attendance roster that underscored the breadth and depth of the two countries’ industrial overlap.
On the South Korean side, the delegation featured Chey Tae-won, chair of SK and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as Samsung Electronics Chair Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun and LG Group Chair Koo Kwang-mo.
Posco Group Chair Chang In-hwa, GS Group Chair Huh Tae-soo, CJ Group Chair Sohn Kyung-Shik, LS Group Chair Koo Ja-eun and Fashion Group Hyungji Chair Choi Byung-oh also attended, along with SM Entertainment CEO Jang Cheol-hyuk and gaming giant Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han.
Chinese companies and groups were represented by their chairpersons, except Tencent, which was represented by a vice president. They included chairs from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Sinopec Group, China Energy Engineering, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, TCL Technology, Contemporary Amperex Technology, Jiangsu Yueda Group, Seres Group, Lancy and ZTE.