The Korean Peninsula, as one of China’s important neighboring regions, has unique and significant geopolitical significance. It is not only a key factor in creating a stable regional environment for China’s security, but also a long-term focus of academic research in Northeast Asia. The stability and peace on the Korean Peninsula and prospect of its unification have always been closely followed by scholars in related fields at home and abroad. The Chinese government has always stressed that it does not want to see military conflicts or wars on the Korean Peninsula and hopes for a peaceful resolution of the situation. However, in the context of intensifying strategic competition between the United States and China, South Korea-China relations are also facing new challenges. It is precisely because of this situation that the academic communities of both countries need to engage in more active and in-depth exchanges and cooperation to deepen mutual understanding and seek common interests. However, there are not many articles on this issue by Korean scholars in the past decade, so this paper focuses on the study of international political diplomatic and security issues related to the Korean Peninsula in Chinese academia over the past decade, to make up for the shortcomings of the related research in the South Korean academia.
In order to enhance mutual understanding between the academic communities of South Korea and China, this paper employs a content analysis approach by extracting all articles on political, diplomatic, and security issues in the Korean Peninsula from the “China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI)” database from 2013 to 2023, and constructs a database to conduct quantitative analysis. The paper first identifies the twelve most frequently occurring primary research themes from the database, and then analyzes them by year to provide a clear understanding of the current research trends and hot topics in the Chinese academic community on political, diplomatic, and security issues of the Korean Peninsula. In addition, to gain a deeper understanding of the current research situation of Chinese academic community, the paper also statistically identifies the top ten research institutions according to the highest article production. These institutions’ experts and scholars have conducted in-depth research on the Korean Peninsula issue and provided valuable insights. This paper introduces and analyzes the top ten research institutions and their experts and scholars, and then, as a supplement to the quantitative analysis, also introduces the experts and scholars who have researched political, diplomatic, and security issues on the Korean Peninsula outside of the top 10 research institutes. By doing so, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the academic trends of the Chinese academic community’s research on the Korean Peninsula issue. In conclusion, this paper conducts a quantitative analysis from various perspectives to draw several conclusions regarding the recent research trends on the Korean Peninsula in the Chinese academic community. The findings are intended to serve as a reference for the next stage of Korean Peninsula studies and to enhance mutual understanding between South Korea and China, thereby promoting further exchanges and cooperation between the academic communities of the two countries.