Tag: China

You would think this retaliation against Korean businesses for deploying a defense weapon system in response to a country backed by Beijing making nuclear threats would cause Korean businesses to want to completely abandon China. Well despite all this retaliation many Korean businesses still want to do business with China:

Korea is still suffering from the impact of China’s economic retaliation due to its decision to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system in 2016.   

Among local retailers, Lotte was most affected by China’s wrath, as the Thaad battery was temporarily deployed on a golf course owned by Lotte Corporation.  

Lotte Shopping had 110 Lotte Mart branches in China in 2016. Seventy-four were slapped with business suspensions for failing to meet local regulations, but forced to stay shut for a year as the Chinese government refused to make re-inspection visits. 

With growing anti-Korean sentiment, the company withdrew all Lotte Marts from China in 2018. According to Lotte Shopping, its estimated loss of the Lotte Mart business in 2017 due to Thaad amounted to 1.2 trillion won.  

Fallout from the Thaad row continued with Lotte Shopping shutting down its five Lotte Department Store branches in the country one-by-one. The last remaining branch closed in August.  

Emart had six branches in China, but shut them all down in 2017.  

The cosmetics industry was also devastated, with Amorepacific being hit the hardest. The company’s net profit in 2017 fell 39.7 percent on year to 489.5 billion won, with revenue dropping 10 percent on year to 6.03 trillion won.  

The Chinese government banned all group travel to Korea through early 2018. Chinese tourists to Korea in 2017 dropped 48.3 percent on year to 4.17 million. Net profit dropped 39.7 percent on year in 2017 to 489.5 billion won and revenue fell 10 percent on year to 6.03 trillion won.  

Retailers have mostly recovered, with many of them opening more branches in Southeast Asia rather than China in an attempt to avoid anymore political risks.   

However, many still heavily rely on China for exports, which could leave Korean companies caught up in the middle again as tensions between the United States and China escalate due to the Inflation Reduction Act.The act aims to give tax credits for electric vehicle (EV) batteries with components sourced from either the United States or countries it has free trade agreements with.    

The change is forcing Korea to make a choice between losing tax credits in a huge market, or cutting ties with Chinese suppliers. Most EV battery materials are imported from China, with some 84 percent of lithium hydroxide imports and 81 percent on cobalt imports coming from China between January and July.   

There is also the chance for a recurrence of a dispute over Thaad, as President Yoon Suk-yeol has denied China’s request to not make any additional Thaad deployments.    

“If the current administration decides to deploy additional units of Thaad, it can increase anti-Korea sentiment in China and there could be additional retaliatory measures like last time, even hindering post-pandemic recoveries of the current duty-free and cosmetics sectors,” said Park Jong-dae, an analyst at Hana Investment & Securities. “But things are a bit different now considering a lot of cosmetics sales shifted online, which could allow consumers to make purchases despite the political clashes.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link on how Korean dramas and video games are also being hit hard by Chinese retaliation.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine opinions from experts in Germany I find to be very suspect:

Angela Kane, vice president of the International Institute for Peace (IIP) in Vienna and former U.N. under-secretary-general for management and high representative for disarmament, presented a view about the evolving geopolitical landscape in East Asia that is very different from others. 

Refuting the popular belief that a new Cold War-like confrontation between two sides ― South Korea, the United States and Japan on one side and China, Russia and North Korea on the other ― has been in the making after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, Kane claims China won’t be tempted to make an enemy of the United States or any other countries. 

Like other countries, she said, China is driven by trade interests and will refrain from doing anything that may hurt its economic gains in foreign markets. 

The German expert visited Korea to join the 2022 DMZ Forum held last Friday in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Moon Chung-in, chairman of Sejong Institute think tank, moderated the session in which Kane participated. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the economic ties that Russia had with Germany and the rest of Europe did not stop it from invading Ukraine. Likewise economic ties are not going to stop China from invading Taiwan once they have the ability to military do so and feel the diplomatic and economic consequences of an invasion can be effectively endured.

Here is the latest on the THAAD issue between China and South Korea:

China’s top legislator made an unprecedented visit to Seoul last week, where they confirmed their differences on South Korea’s deployment of the US-made missile defense system that Beijing opposes.

Li Zhanshu, Beijing’s third-highest-ranking official and chief of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, made an unprecedented two-day trip to Seoul from Thursday, as South Korea has embarked on work to normalize operations of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system.

Paying a courtesy visit to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and also meeting with top officials including his Korean counterpart Kim Jin-pyo, the National Assembly speaker, Li discussed a range of topics, including the operation of THAAD.

When Li visited on Friday, Yoon told Li that South Korea and China must “closely communicate” so that THAAD does not become a “hurdle” to bilateral relations.

Li also agreed on the need for improvement in communication to address the “sensitive” issue, implicitly referring to the THAAD issue. (…….)

Over Li’s visit to Seoul and his meeting with Yoon, China’s state-operated English news outlet Global Times cited analysts to report that Seoul appears to have “received and better understood Beijing’s position on some sensitive issues, and that following the US is not completely in South Korea’s national interests.”

In the meeting with Li, Yoon also delivered his invitation for Chinese President Xi Jinping to Seoul, saying that Xi’s visit would be an “important sign” that opens the door to the next 30 years of their bilateral relationship.

South Korea and China celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations this year.

With the ongoing THAAD issue, however, it is highly unlikely for Xi to visit Korea anytime soon, unless there is a clear benefit for China to gain, Kang Jun-young, a Chinese studies professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, told The Korea Herald.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the Chinese hypocrisy over THAAD continues to be so obvious. They continue to be against the THAAD system in the ROK because they claim it is against Chinese security interests while completely ignoring ROK security interests.  If it wasn’t for the Chinese backing of their client state North Korea that has allowed them to pursue missiles and nuclear weapons to threaten the ROK, the deployment of THAAD to South Korea would not be necessary in the first place.

It seems to me that President Biden is making it pretty clear that the U.S. will defend Taiwan if it is attacked by China:

President Joe Biden on Sunday for the second time this year said U.S. troops would help defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion, further casting doubt on the United States’ policy of “strategic ambiguity” regarding the island democracy.

Biden in an interview broadcast on CBS’ “60 Minutes” said the U.S. remains committed to the “One China” policy that acknowledges Beijing’s claim over Taiwan but considers the island’s status unresolved.

However, in the case of an “unprecedented attack,” U.S. troops would intervene, the president said.

An unnamed White House spokesman later said official U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan has not changed, CNBC reported Monday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.