During last two decades, China has emerged as the single most important business partner with Korea. During this period, economic situations, geo-political factors, and behaviors of Chinese government and people all contributed for the improved partnership, perceptions, and appeals on China among Korean people. This paper tries to figure out how leading Korean business groups and their expatriate managers have been trying to adjust their business in steering through balance sheets of China risks. Classifying China risks at political-systemic, administrative-bureaucratic, and daily operational risks like guanxi politics, this paper tries to evaluate how Korean big business in China are trying to take advantage of their risks into business advantages. At political-systemic level, accumulation of trust with Chinese political system and their policies has enabled the massive growth of China investment of Korean firms in short period. Korean big business groups were major beneficiaries of rapidly changing geo-political and strategic circumstances with China's emergence in East Asia. They were relatively successful in turning political risks of their neighbors into their economic opportunities. Korean big businesses are still surfing high tide in China without fearing much about political risks. At administrative-bureaucratic level, most of the Large Korean business groups were relatively free from tight control or intimidation of Chinese bureaucracy. Korean global manufacturers have been directly taken care by the central as well as provincial governments. They were able to be insulated from inconveniences under the patronage of Chinese bureaucracy. The favorable treatment of Chinese government both at central and local level also facilitated their business activities. It is evident China provided Korean business groups invaluable opportunities to enlarge their business scale in the globalized markets. In building their own human resources regime, Korean big business took advantage of ethnic Koreans during initial stages. However, they also emphasized much on the strategic importance of their own army of general managers who can take care of overall affairs in China. Korean big businesses were able to build up a stable daily business calipers by taking advantage of ethnic Korean and their strategic emphasis on endogenous human resources. With regard to guanxi politics, Korean companies are very aggressive. They regard good human networks as highly important in their business success. Compared with other East Asian countries, Koreans were much less exposed to the risk sides of the emergence of China. They are still willing to take advantage of China risks.
Introduction
Research Design
Emergence of China and its Appeal
Perceptions on the Emergence of China
The success of Korean big business groups in China
Evaluation of China Risks
Conclusion
References