The carrot and the stick: China's wedging against South Korea during the US–China competition

In the midst of an intensifying US–China competition, China has adopted various policies to deal with the expanding US-led security network encircling it. As one endeavour, China has implemented a wedge strategy to weaken the US-led security coalition. This study focuses on one case of China's wedging against South Korea to disturb the US-South Korea alliance. This wedging strategy against the Park Geun-hye Administration was composed of two distinct approaches: a reward-based general wedging to prevent South Korea from tilting toward the US, and a coercion-based issue-specific wedging to divide them primarily by disturbing the deployment of THAAD in Korea.