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Analysis China exploits South Korea’s strategic paralysis in Yellow Sea expansionWhile Beijing installs platforms, Seoul balances trade, alliance and leadership vacuum as it weighs cost of pushing back China’s installation of a fixed steel platform in the Yellow Sea is a stress test of how far a U.S. ally, boxed in by trade pressure, alliance friction and domestic political transition, can be pushed without pushing back. While both governments held a dialogue on Wednesday over the maritime dispute, China’s activities in the ROK-China Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ) began well before the Feb. 2025 maritime standoff that drew headlines in South Korea. The first sign of Beijing’s long game came in 2018 with the deployment of the Shenlan-1 semi-submersible platform, followed by Shenlan-2 in 2022. In late 2022, China © Korea Risk Group. All rights reserved. |





