Residents of both the ROK and the PRC often invoke their respective nation’s millennia-old history as an integral part of their identity and worldview. One might find, therefore, that a sense of history would have an influence on relations between the two neighbors. While history and historical consciousness can, indeed, be seen to play a role in separating China and South Korea and bringing them together, it is apparent that leaders on both sides have made a consistent and conscious effort to prioritize geopolitical and economic issues over historical ones. Citizens and netizens, in contrast, keep historical issues alive in ways that complicate the agendas of officials and statesmen. On the South Korean side, historical memories have resonated in wariness about ongoing Sino-ROK relations: premodern tributary relations that left Korea in a state of dependency (sadae), the Korean War in which China approved North Korea’s attack and then came to its defense, and the Cold War period of Chinese backing North Korea even as it repeatedly acted belligerently. Above all, China’s cultural haughtiness—its assumption of civilizational superiority and great power status deserving of deference—has left South Koreans on alert.    

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