When President Lee Jae Myung was asked at a press conference last week about rising anti-China sentiment in South Korea in connection with a recent data-theft case involving a Chinese national, his response was terse but firm. “So what?” he retorted sternly. “Should we hate Japan if the person were Japanese? Should we hate the US if they were an American?” The answer was logically sound, but it failed to address the deeper and more troubling reality of growing anti-China feelings among many Koreans. He may have silenced the reporter, but he did not silence a public increasingly critical of its powerful neighbor.

The hardening of Korean attitudes toward China is clearly reflected in opinion polls. In a June survey conducted by JoongAng Ilbo and the East Asia Institute of more than 1,500 South Koreans, 66.3 percent expressed unfavorable views of China, up from 63.8

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