President Lee Jae Myung has departed for a four-day state visit to China for summit talks with President Xi Jinping, focusing on North Korea, economic ties, and cultural exchanges. This marks his first trip to China since taking office last June and the first by a South Korean president since 2019.
President Lee Jae Myung departed for Beijing on Sunday, January 5, 2026, for a four-day state visit to hold summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday. This is their second meeting in two months, following a sideline encounter at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju in early November, when Xi visited South Korea for the first time in 11 years.
The discussions will center on seeking China's support for improving ties with Pyongyang and advancing Korean Peninsula denuclearization, a top priority for the Lee administration. Accompanied by a large business delegation, Lee will attend a Korea-China economic forum in Beijing to explore cooperation in artificial intelligence, green energy, supply chains, and tourism. The two sides expect to sign more than 10 memorandums of understanding across various fields, according to the presidential office.
Cultural exchanges are also on the agenda, with Seoul aiming to ease unofficial restrictions on Korean content in China since the 2017 deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system. National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac stated that Seoul will seek ways to boost cultural ties between the two nations. Sensitive topics include China's construction of steel structures in the Yellow Sea's overlapping zone, which Seoul views as potential territorial groundwork; working-level talks have been ongoing since it was raised in November.
Amid heightened tensions over Taiwan after China's recent military drills, Lee reaffirmed in a Friday interview with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV that South Korea's respect for the "One China" policy remains unchanged. On Tuesday, he is scheduled for a luncheon with Premier Li Qiang on economic policy and a meeting with Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, before heading to Shanghai. There, Lee will visit the site of the Republic of Korea's Provisional Government to mark its centennial and commemorate the 150th anniversary of independence hero Kim Gu's birth (1876-1949), attend a startup event with Korean and Chinese entrepreneurs, and return home on Wednesday.
The visit underscores South Korea's pragmatic diplomacy to manage relations with China—a vital partner in trade, tourism, and peninsula peace—while upholding its U.S. alliance.
