China's peaceful rise can be attributed to its reform and opening-up, which are based on the economic development model that best suits its national conditions. China has gained confidence, reshaped national pride and mapped out a development path in the past three decades to achieve higher goals.

But China's rise has put some of its neighbors like the Republic of Korea in a strategic dilemma, the dilemma of balancing political considerations and economic cooperation. The question for the ROK is, whether to get a ride on China's fast economic development and, if so, how?

After repeated considerations and several twists and turns, the two sides established formal diplomatic relations on Aug 24, 1992, ushering in a new period of China-ROK partnership. Since then, China-ROK relations have made great achievements, with their cooperation focusing on trade and investment in the early days and spreading later into various fields, including politics, security and culture. China has become the ROK's largest trading partner, and the ROK, China's third largest.