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SEOUL, Jan. 9 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung flew to China this week for a summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, for the second time in two months. Lee is the first president of the country to visit Beijing since 2019.

Lee said that the two leaders should meet at least once a year, stressing the significance of shoring up the bilateral relationship between the two neighbors, whose ties at times have been strained.

Observers point out that Lee’s meetings with Xi showcases Seoul’s delicate position amid the intensifying rivalry between the United States and China.

“Despite its security alignment with Washington, South Korea relies heavily on China for trade, although the dependence has declined somewhat in recent years. As a result, Seoul is in a delicate position,” Myungji University political science professor Shin Yul told UPI.

“In the past, there was a simple formula — the U.S. for security and China for trade. But at a time when the world’s two most powerful countries are at odds and conditions are changing so fast, such an approach may no longer work,” he said.

Relations between Seoul and Beijing became worse in 2016 and 2017, when South Korea cooperated with the United States to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defense system to tackle North Korea’s threats.

However, the decision provoked China, which feared the advanced radar system would provide a window into the communist country’s internal airspace.

Beijing eventually initiated with what Seoul described as unofficial economic retaliation, including restrictions on Korean cultural content, group tourism bans and regulatory pressure on Korean businesses operating in China.

Officially, however, Beijing has consistently denied taking retaliatory measures over the past decade. Against this backdrop, Lee expressed hope to deal with them during a meeting Tuesday with Chen Jining, Communist Party secretary of Shanghai.

“Korea-China relations will advance to an entirely new stage through this visit to China,” Lee said. “I believe this trip will serve as a valuable opportunity to resolve the minor frictions that existed in the past.”

Strategic ambiguity

Improved ties with China would offer short-term economic benefits for South Korea, as China is South Korea’s largest trading partner. Last year, South Korea’s exports to China totaled $130.81 billion, compared with $122.87 billion to the United States.

However, analysts caution that Seoul cannot prioritize relations with Beijing in isolation, as Beijing’s rivalry with the United States directly affects its core security alliance.

“We cannot closely collaborate with China in such sensitive industries as semiconductors and nuclear reactors,” economic commentator Kim Kyeong-joon, formerly vice chairman at Deloitte Consulting Korea, said in a phone interview.

“In addition, China is our competitor in many industries, including steel, automobiles, rechargeable batteries and petrochemicals. There have also been recurring conflicts over intellectual property issues between the two,” he added.

Concerns have grown among Korean corporations over technology leakage and imitation by their Chinese competitors, particularly in such high-tech sectors as semiconductors and displays.

In this climate, South Korea has little choice but to carefully balance its approach, said political commentator Choi Soo-young, who worked at the presidential house in the 2010s.

“We should shun a situation in which we are forced to single-handedly side with one of the two superpowers, the United States and China. That would be the worst-case scenario,” Choi said.

“In other words, we are required to maintain the so-called ‘strategic ambiguity.’ However, it is a tall task to achieve, as amply demonstrated by Japan’s case,” he said.

From the perspective of Seoul, strategic ambiguity refers to avoiding explicit alignment choices at a time when Washington and China have competing strategic interests, according to Choi.

China’s relationship with Japan has frayed in recent months amid geopolitical tensions, leading to economic standoffs with direct trade impacts.

For example, China imposed export restrictions on dual-use goods this month, targeting Japan. It also curbed exports of rare earth elements, which are vital to Japan’s electronics and automotive supply chains.

Meanwhile, the Seoul administration announced Friday that Lee is scheduled to visit Japan early next week for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

The Galaxy will begin the new season the same way they finished the old one — with Riqui Puig on the sideline after knee surgery. That’s a big problem because Puig is about the closest thing MLS has to an irreplaceable player. And with training camp starting in a couple of weeks, the team has precious little time to try to replace him.

In 2024, the last time Puig was on the field, he led the league in touches and passes and set career highs for goals (13) and assists (15). With him directing the attack, the Galaxy set a record with four players scoring 10 or more times en route a sixth MLS title. It was one of the best seasons in franchise history.

In 2025, without Puig, the only records the Galaxy set were for futility, starting the season winless in their first 16 league matches and finishing with just seven wins, a franchise low for a full season. No reigning MLS Cup champion has fared so poorly.

The contrast is so stark because Puig doesn’t just define the way the team plays; he is the way the team plays. He’s the quarterback and the point guard. His speed, dribbling and passing ability make the Galaxy go, opening up space for opportunity for his teammates. He’s the rare player who truly makes everyone around him better.

Even Lionel Messi isn’t as important to his team as Puig is to the Galaxy.

“The game changes when Riqui’s on the field,” coach Greg Vanney said.

Puig first tore the ACL in his left knee in the Western Conference final in 2024, assisting on the game’s only goal after sustaining the injury. The Galaxy originally thought they’d have him back by late summer, in time for a playoff push. So last winter they felt comfortable trading Mark Delgado and Gastón Brugman, the two most likely fill-ins for Puig, largely to fit their payroll under the MLS salary cap.

In the interim, the plan was to make Marco Reus the team’s midfield maestro. But Reus had his own injury problems and didn’t start consecutive MLS games until early May. By then the Galaxy had gone winless through their first 10 matches.

Reus went on to play well at times, but the season was effectively over by then. There would be no playoff push, so the Galaxy felt no need to rush Puig back.

This winter the team’s entire offseason preparation was based on Puig’s return — both on and off the field.

Off the field, the Galaxy filmed a multi-part documentary called “Riqui Puig’s Road To Recovery” and used his return to hype ticket sales. On the field, believing the midfield to be set, general manager Will Kuntz added two top-tier defenders in Jakob Glesnes and Justin Haak, committing more than $2 million in salary to the pair.

But then, one day into the new year, Puig and the team learned he needed another operation and would have to miss a second season, throwing all of the Galaxy’s plans into the dumpster.

The Galaxy never blamed their troubles last season on Puig’s absence, but they didn’t have to. It was obvious. And if they couldn’t replace the irreplaceable last season, what confidence should anyone have that they can do it this season?

The team’s biggest mistake last year was not planning for Puig’s absence. The team entered the winter knowing he’d miss most of the season and didn’t act accordingly. They even kept Puig’s $5.8-million salary and designated-player roster spot on the books in the hopes he’d play at some point.

Don’t expect them to make the same mistakes this time. Instead, the Galaxy are all but certain to place him on the season-ending injury list, opening up a DP slot and erasing the hit his salary takes on the budget cap.

The good news, if there is any, is that Vanney believes the Galaxy eventually figured out how to play without Puig last year. After going winless in their first 16 MLS games, the Galaxy went 7-6-5 in league play and finished third in the Leagues Cup, earning a spot in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

“By the end of the year, we were beating MLS playoff teams and we beat the top teams in Mexico,” Vanney said. “We found how this group could be successful without the pieces that were missing.”

Now they’ll have to do that again.

What exactly happened with Puig hasn’t been made clear. He was more than a year into his rehab when he returned home to Barcelona for the holidays. Puig had trained alongside the team last fall and he continued training in Spain. The recovery seemed to be going well.

But something — a quick move or an uncertain cut — sent Puig back to the doctor and a day later he underwent a second operation.

ACL revision surgeries (multiple procedures) are not rare, with some studies suggesting they are needed between 10% to 20% of the time, especially for athletes who play so-called pivoting sports such as soccer. Most commonly, a second surgery is needed because the first graft has re-torn.

Christen Press, a two-time World Cup champion, torn the ligament in her right knee eight games into her first season with Angel City and needed four operations to repair the damage. She started just three more matches over the next 3 ½ seasons before retiring.

But Press was 33 when she was injured. Puig is 26. And though that suggests the odds for a full recovery are high, Puig’s age also adds to the poignancy of the situation since the injury will now take two years off his career when he was at his prime.

Another season like 2024 could have had Puig, who played 42 games over four seasons for Barcelona, planning for a return to Europe or at least another big payday in MLS. Now he won’t play another game until he’s 27 and in the final year of his contract, when the pressure to prove he’s healthy and still a dynamic game-changing player will be immense.

In the meantime, the Galaxy find themselves once again trying to replace the irreplaceable.

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.