Thursday marks the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the Republic of Korea, an occasion that should have been observed with lots of fanfare and the extending of mutual best wishes.

That such high-profile celebrations are conspicuous by their absence can be attributed to the deployment of the United States' Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in the ROK, which put a brake on the development of the hard-won strategic cooperative partnership, and then thrust it into reverse.

Despite Beijing's firm opposition to the ROK's deployment of THAAD given its potential damage to the regional strategic balance and China's security interests - as well as the doubts about the system's ability to achieve its stated purpose of defending the ROK should it come under attack from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - the recently installed ROK President Moon Jae-in ordered a speedy deployment of the controversial missile defense system late last month after the DPRK's most recent missile test.