Abstract
The Korean peninsula is crucial to China’s political, economic and security interests because of a combination of geographic, historical, and political circumstances. China’s economic reforms and the end of the Cold War both provided new challenges and opportunities for Northeast Asian politics. This article describes China’s position on Korean unification and the U.S. military presence on the Korean peninsula. China officially supports Korean unification if it is achieved peacefully and orderly through the concerted efforts of the two Koreas. Openly supporting a peaceful unification of Korea in principle, Beijing clearly prefers the status quo on the peninsula. Beijing’s dominant interest is a peaceful and stable but divided Korean peninsula. Beijing has a strong sense of uncertainty over the future of the US-ROK military alliance, the political fate of the DPRK, and the fallout of Korean unification. China maintains an ambivalent stance regarding the stationing of US Forces Korea (USPK). China officially opposes the stationing of troops in foreign territory, but in recent years has acknowledged the stabilizing role of American troops’ presence in East Asia. After Korea’s unification, however, China does not recognize the need for a USFK presence.