This paper compares Sino–South Korean management of bilateral economic and political tensions; it argues that China’s WTO entry has provided an external institutional framework for managing disputes on the economic side that has facilitated bilateral trade growth. The lack of institutional mechanisms regulating bilateral security relations suggests that management of the Sino-ROK security relationship will be more difficult. An examination of the differing approaches to dealing with the Sino–South Korean “garlic war” of 2000, the “kimchi war” of 2005, and the melamine scandal of 2008 suggests that China’s integration into the global economic system in 2001 has provided a useful contextual framework for effective management of bilateral economic disputes.