China and South Korea are both global leaders in technological development, each with its own distinctive strengths, and the two countries can fully achieve complementary advantages and deliver mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Dai Bing said in an interview with the Korea Daily published on Wednesday, in response to a question about which fields have the greatest potential for bilateral scientific and technological cooperation.

"Recently, many South Korean media outlets have increased their coverage of and attention to China's achievements in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and new energy, calling for the two sides to strengthen mutual learning and mutually beneficial cooperation," Dai said, according to the Chinese transcript published on the official WeChat account of Embassy of China in the Republic of Korea on Wednesday.

Dai suggested that both sides should continue to deepen and solidify existing cooperation, and fully tap the potential in traditional areas of collaboration. At the same time, in line with the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, both countries should actively expand and strengthen cooperation in high-tech fields such as AI, biomedicine, green and environmental protection, so as to elevate the quality and level of bilateral cooperation.

According to Dai, from late last year to early this year, the leaders of both countries conducted mutual visits within a short span of two months, which opened a new chapter in bilateral relations and created favorable conditions for deepening scientific and technological cooperation.

A Chinese observer said that Dai's remarks paint a promising picture of how China and South Korea could strengthen cooperation to fully tap the strategic opportunities brought by the global AI investment wave. The two economies could expand cooperation across the whole AI industrial chain, ranging from chips and large-language model training to data center construction and AI algorithms.

Lü Chao, a professor at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday that there is plenty of room for deepening collaboration in high-end manufacturing, such as robotics, the industrial internet, 6G and autonomous driving, as well as bio-manufacturing.

"South Korea has fostered strong technological competitiveness and is home to large pool of skillful talent, while China has a large market, complete industrial chain and fast-moving innovation," Lü said, highlighting a solid basis for deepening cooperation.

China has been South Korea's largest trading partner for 21 consecutive years, while South Korea is now China's second-largest trading partner, according to a statement from China's Ministry of Commerce. In the past, bilateral cooperation centered mostly on such traditional sectors as semiconductors, home appliances, batteries, auto parts and consumer electronics, according to Lü.

Analysts said that such cooperation will be both a stabilizer and an innovation engine for the Asia-Pacific and global supply chains. "The industrial chain is highly intertwined between China and South Korea. Enhanced bilateral cooperation will help mitigate the disruption caused by geopolitical risks and rising protectionism," Lü said.

During the interview, Ambassador Dai also shared his perspective on whether South Korea's perception of China affects its objective evaluation of Chinese technology and bilateral cooperation.

In recent years, Korean society has shown strong interest in China's technological progress and has studied China's approaches to talent development, policy support, and industrial cultivation. While many have urged South Korea to take full advantage of its proximity to and deep presence in China to enhance cooperation, some remain apprehensive, fearing China's strong competitiveness and third-party interference, Dai said.

"New technologies like AI are advancing and being updated at an extremely fast pace, meaning cooperation opportunities can be fleeting… The wave of global industrial innovation will not pause, nor will China's rapid development wait for others," Dai said.

While some countries and so-called allies may exert pressure to disrupt the process of China-South Korea pragmatic cooperation, Lü stressed that Seoul needs to make the right decisions that truly serve its long-term economic interests.

"South Korea should assess the current situation with a clear mind, recognize its own fundamental and long-term interests, and take geopolitical factors into consideration. From this perspective, it should take economic cooperation with China very seriously," he suggested.