Should South Korea Decrease Economic Dependence on China?
China is an existential threat to South Korea and has already tried once to destroy the ROK and continues to enable the Kim regime who’s goal is to eliminate the ROK as well. It seems decreasing dependence on Chinese trade and increasing trade with the U.S. is in the best interests of the ROK as the below article explores:
Over the past few years, Washington has launched countermeasures against Beijing such as imposing sanctions on Chinese tech firm Huawei, crafting the CHIPS and Science Act to encourage chip-making businesses to reshore their facilities and passing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to contain the Chinese-dominated EV battery industry.
Korea Times
However, the power struggle between the world’s top two economies also inflicted unintended consequences on South Korean companies that have a high proportion of semiconductor and battery businesses in China.
Kim Dae-jong, a professor of business administration at Sejong University, said the South Korean government and companies should try to deepen cooperation with the U.S. and reduce their high dependence on China. “Ensuring national security is a value that should be considered a top priority in running a country,” he said.
“Our economy is heavily dependent on international trade and the Chinese market, including Hong Kong, account for nearly 30 percent of the nation’s total trade in 2022. Given that China accounts for around 13 percent of the world economy, this can be interpreted that we are overly dependent on China at two or three times the average.”
He added, “Whether you agree or not, the U.S. has contributed the largest part of South Korea’s economic development. South Korea’s defense budget amounts to around 2 percent of GDP while North Korea spends about 26 percent of its GDP as of 2022. With the U.S. sharing a significant portion of our defense, we have been able to devote more resources to economic development instead of defense.”
You can read more at the link.
clearly, should stop all trade and commerce with Commie China. Don’t forget, November of 1950 Korea was a unified country…until Commie China entered the war.
South Korea should not put their economy heavily into ANY other country’s power. China, Russia, Japan, the USA, and even Australia have different goals. South Korea should work on furthering their own goals.
I would have said that the USA was the least troublesome of the lot; but in the bungling hands of whoever is pulling SpongeBiden PoopyPants’ strings, I no longer believe that. I don’t want South Korea to end up like South Vietnam or Afghanistan.
South Korea should export to whoever is paying.
South Korea should import from whoever is giving the best deals.
South Korea should ensure strategic component/precursor industries are maintained domestically and the technology is constantly updated and refined, even if this is under a government subsidy at a very small scale… but, in the event of a global shortage, this manufacturing is ready to scale up quickly.
Korea should stop all fraud/waste/abuse social and infrastructure projects and invest heavily in technologies of the future… space, aircraft, flying cars, weapon systems, military ships, AI, nuclear, indoor farming, biotechnology, biomechanical human augmentation, etc.
Korea should secure multiple supply lines for raw materials via long-term contracts, direct investment, partnerships, etc. (Watch what the chinese are doing). This should be done with America/China-Russia/Africa/South America so they still get what is needed no matter how the war goes.
Korea should be energy independent… with nuclear power generation and more electric transportation/cooking/heaters.
Korea should invest in other countries but discourage investment in Korea unless it comes with technology transfers and a sunset clause.
I can probably think of more.
I have great faith in Korea because:
– Korean seems to be doing some of these things. Korea has plans and is moving on them.
– Korea encourages small business instead of trying to kill it (previous administration aside).
– Korea encourages small high-tech business and encourages small companies that export.
– Korea is full of smart and educated people… that is kind of a default position. America has very smart and educated people… but that is the exception. As evidence, I present you The People of Emart as opposed to The People of Walmart.
– Korea does not want to be poor again and they will work hard not to be. Contrast this with so many Americans bragging how smart they are because they know how to game the system to get that free money.
– Apart from a few globalists, or maybe they are just self-important Koreans who think they can look big by betraying Korea… Korea has a healthy Korea-first mentality.
(An American can exist well in Korea and be a patriotic Korea First Korean… and still be a patriotic American… as they are not at cross purposes. What if they have to make a choice someday? Difficult. Korea looks out for Koreans and Koreans look out for Korea… which is EXACTLY the purpose of a nation and patriotism. America AND Americans had better start demonstrating America First or they are going to lose the good will of many American in Korea. What is the point of supporting a country that hates its people and a people who hate each other?)
This list has many more points as well.
Good luck, Korea…
…but you arent going to need it.
You are going to create that luck.
Good luck, America.
You are going to need it… as there is too much worry about the feelings of criminal blacks, the pronouns of the mentally ill, if you have 10 or 15 rounds in your magazine, if you made 600 bucks in the gig economy, patriotism for Ukraine, medical care for criminal aliens, and every other non-productive and self destructive priority imaginable.
Economic diversification helps with resiliency and price control during supply chain issues.