A view of the Seoul skyline Photo: VCG

South Korea is grappling with scorching heat waves this summer, with temperatures soaring above 40 C in its capital city of Seoul for the first time since 2018. The extreme weather has dominated newspaper headlines lately, which has wreaked havoc on the people's health and agricultural production there.

For instance, with mass die-offs at the country's fish farms and catches declining, seafood prices are trending higher, according to South Korean media reports. Meanwhile, South Korean consumers' demand for cooling products is surging.

Against this backdrop, the unique strengths of China-South Korea economic and trade cooperation - characterized by flexible responses and regional short-chain supply arrangements - have been fully demonstrated.

Unlike countries in Europe and elsewhere in the West, or regions that rely on long-distance transportation, China and South Korea share geographical proximity and mature cross-border logistics system. Built through years of in-depth industrial collaboration, their circulation network drastically shortens supply chain routes and turnover cycles, delivering vital response in time of need. 

Since the onset of the summer heat waves, a diverse array of Chinese-made goods - frozen beverages, portable handheld fans, pet cooling accessories and others - has flowed to the South Korean market. The rapid replenishment has provided relief to South Koreans grappling with soaring temperatures.

The "cool" trade that has blossomed between the two countries is fundamentally a story of mutual benefit and complementary strengths. While Chinese cooling supplies enter the South Korean market, Chinese consumers' demand for South Korean summer cosmetics and personal care products is heating up too. These two seemingly separate trade flows essentially reflect the deep-seated trade complementarity between the two neighbors.

Since the beginning of summer, "cool-feeling" cosmetics have become a shopping hit among Chinese consumers. Many South Korean products, featuring lightweight textures, durability and sweat-proof performance, have won growing market popularity.

The two-way trade flow is rooted in the alignment of the two countries' industrial structures and consumer needs, allowing both consumers to access what they require in the trade of "cool products" and achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.

The structural underpinnings of this synergy run deep. China's strength in agricultural production, cold‑chain infrastructure, and large‑scale manufacturing complements South Korea's prowess in beauty product research and development, good quality control and sophisticated brand operation. Most importantly, their geographical proximity allows such industrial complementarity to flourish.

From a broader perspective, global climate change seems to continue interfering with economic life in increasingly unpredictable ways. Caught in this dual pressure of escalating climate shock and global industrial restructuring, the significance of regional economic cooperation is being redefined. It is no longer limited to expanding market access and cutting operational costs; instead, it is deeply tied to safeguarding people's basic livelihoods in time of sudden unexpected disruptions.

The shortened transportation window brought by geographical proximity boosts the supply chain's response speed, enabling it to swiftly counter market volatility triggered by sudden emergencies.

The deep industrial integration that China and South Korea have nurtured over the past decades across sectors including electronics, beauty, agricultural products and cold-chain logistics has laid an exceptionally solid foundation for bilateral cooperation.

Currently, global supply chains are facing shocks from geopolitical conflicts, rising trade barriers as well as surging extreme weather patterns, leaving many long-distance global supply chains increasingly fragile and prone to sudden breakdowns.

The short-chain cooperation between China and South Korea has demonstrated that, in the era of growing uncertainties in the world, tapping deeper into regional industrial complementary advantages and building more stable and flexible cross-border industrial and supply chains is both an efficient choice to reduce circulation costs and a practical path to fend off risks to ensure industrial stability and protect people's livelihood.