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Amid the intensifying China-US strategic game, the ROK, as both an ally of the United States and an important partner of China, is facing increasing pressure to pick sides. Within the ROK, there have been fierce debates on how to respond, with various opinions coming up including siding with the US to balance against China, taking the free ride of China's development, focusing on the ROK's own independent strength, maintaining the status quo, and transcending the conventional diplomatic framework. At the beginning of the Moon Jae-in administration, the ROK kept strategic ambiguity and avoided taking sides based on the recognition that China and the US are equally important. However, influenced by a series of internal and external factors, the Moon government in its later stage demonstrated increasing tendency to follow the US while sticking to the balance between the two powers. Under the conservative presidency of Yoon Suk-yeol, the ROK may move closer to the US given the uncertainty of his policy toward North Korea, the increasing conservative tendency domestically, and the impacts of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, based on the close economic ties between China and the ROK, the progressive majority in the National Assembly and the ROK's long-standing pragmatic diplomatic traditions, the momentum and the possibility still exists for China-ROK relations to maintain steady development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]