Changing South Korean Perceptions of China since the 1992 Normalization of Diplomatic Relations: Complex Patterns of Expectation, Disillusionment, and Hostility

This article examines changing South Korean perceptions of China since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1992, focusing on the transition from expectation to disillusionment and hostility. In the early post-normalization period, China was widely imagined as a market and a new space for economic expansion. However, historical disputes, industrial competition, the THAAD conflict, COVID-19, and online platform culture gradually transformed South Korean perceptions of China into distrust and resentment. Rather than treating anti-China sentiment as a simple reaction to individual events, this article approaches it as the result of a long-term process of “processual learning,” through which experiences, media discourse, and online narratives accumulated over time. Drawing on newspaper archives, online big data, and survey analysis, the article argues that contemporary anti-China sentiment reflects not only geopolitical tensions but also generational anxiety, perceptions of fairness, platform-driven emotional politics, and domestic political polarization in South Korea.