Relations between two of East Asia’s great powers, China and South Korea, have been strengthened after a period of uncertainty with the February inauguration in Seoul of a pro-American politician, Lee Myung-bak, as president.

Although Lee was known to be a fan of both the United States and Japan, he was believed to be cooler toward China. In fact, three years ago, while he was mayor of Seoul, he changed the capital’s Chinese name from Hancheng, which can be interpreted as “Chinese city”, to Shouer, a Chinese approximation of the pronunciation of Seoul.

After Lee’s inauguration, China sent a special envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, to express its felicitations. Wang, a consummate diplomat, made clear Beijing’s concerns that relations between the two countries could suffer under a Lee administration.

In any event, the new leader decided to go to Washington and Tokyo on his first overseas trip, primarily to mend relations with the United States. In a move to obtain congressional approval of a U.S.–South Korea free-trade agreement signed a year ago, Seoul agreed to lift a ban on U.S. beef imposed for fear of mad cow disease.

Only after the American and Japanese sojourns did Lee turn his attention to China, and the Korean leader suggested raising their bilateral relationship to a higher level. As a result, the two countries agreed to upgrade their relations to a strategic, cooperative partnership, complete with a high-level dialogue between vice foreign ministers. China already has such dialogues with the United States and Japan.

In addition to upgrading relations with China, Lee appears to have moderated his hard-line position on North Korea.

Shortly after his return from China, a Unification Ministry official said that the Lee administration’s policy was to develop inter-Korean relations in parallel with a resolution of the nuclear issue. Previously, Lee had said that following North Korea’s disablement of its nuclear weapons, South Korea and the rest of the international community would help the North to develop its economy.

It appears that Lee has had to revise his original idea of revitalizing the U.S./Japan/South Korea alliance and is now more amenable to China’s idea of persuading Pyongyang through diplomatic means to give up its nuclear weapons.

The Lee visit also shed light on China’s views on the U.S.–South Korea alliance and other American military alliances in Asia.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, who was asked the day of Lee’s arrival what the impact of the Seoul-Washington alliance would be on Northeast Asia and whether or not it would affect South Korea’s relations with China, responded: “As we all know, time has changed, so have situations in all countries of this region. The cold war mentality of ”˜military alliance’ would not be valid in viewing, measuring, and handling the current global or regional security issues.”

Two days later, after a meeting between Lee and Chinese president Hu Jintao and the agreement to set up a strategic relationship, Qin was asked again about the U.S.–South Korean military alliance. He repeated his earlier position, adding that instead of military alliances China advocates “a new security concept of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, and cooperation”.

Asked about the American security treaty with Japan, Qin responded that that, too, was “a product of certain historic conditions”.

If it was not clear previously, it is certainly clear now that China does not look favourably on America’s military alliances in Asia.

Indeed, as Qin said, much has changed over the years. The United States used to be the most important country in the region, both economically and militarily.

Today, that is no longer true. China is now the biggest trading partner of both South Korea and Japan. What this means is that China is now of much greater economic consequence in East Asia than previously.

The U.S. is still, by far, the most powerful country in military terms, but China, it seems, is saying that the era of military alliances is over. Indeed, increasingly, China, South Korea, and Japan are meeting and holding discussions on the future of the region. And even though two of those three countries are America’s military allies, the United States is not party to such talks.