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China’s retaliation against S. Korean firms over THAAD

China’s retaliation against S. Korean firms over THAAD

Posted December. 03, 2016 07:06,   

Updated December. 03, 2016 07:21

한국어

China is conducting tax probes and fire safety and sanitary checkups at some 150 stores and factories run by South Korea’s Lotte Group. It is highly likely that the Chinese government is conducting a sweeping examination of a foreign company because the Lotte Group provided the South Korean government with the site for the terminal high-altitude area defense system (THAAD). It is not the first time that China is waging shameful and dirty retaliation against the THAAD deployment. In addition to banning airing South Korean entertainment programs and advertisements, Beijing is set to restrict group tourists from South Korea.

At the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing would make more efforts for marking opening and economic liberalization. How can China talk about free trade when it disrespects international trade order by taking retaliatory actions against private companies over diplomatic issues? What foreign company would invest in such a country whose government takes such retaliatory actions?

Kim Jang-soo, a retired army general and the South Korean ambassador to China, is one of the best persons who can persuade China with South Korea’s position on the THAAD deployment. According to the administration’s reports to the National Assembly, Kim met with Chinese officials just 27 times out of 96 official activities during the first eight months of this year. Among them, he made just 13 contacts over the situation in the Korean Peninsula. He should have been more active in visiting Chinese officials to explain Seoul’s position and lodge complaints against China’s unfair moves against South Korea.

Lotte Shopping’s Chinese and Hong Kong subsidiaries lost 140 billion won (119.4 million U.S. dollars) in the third quarter of this year alone. At this opportunity, South Korean companies should consider reducing their dependence on exports to China in a long-term strategy. They need to diversify their export channels by reducing their dependence on exports to China which jumped from 10.7 percent of their total overseas shipments in 2000 to 26 percent in 2015.



angelhuh@donga.com