China has threatened some of South Korea’s largest companies over Seoul’s decision to deploy a US ballistic missile shield, according to several people briefed on the conversations.
Samsung and Lotte Group were among companies warned by a foreign ministry official during a visit to Seoul last week that their China business could suffer because of the Korean stance.
South Korean officials labelled a visit by Chen Hai, the ministry’s deputy director-general of the department of Asian affairs, as “highly irregular”. They said he ignored requests to postpone the trip until the new year and did not pay a courtesy call to his counterparts at the foreign ministry in Seoul.
Asked about Mr Chen’s visit, China’s foreign ministry responded that he had “widely exchanged opinions on China-Korea relations, bilateral communication and co-operation, with people from all circles in Korea”.
Samsung and Lotte said they were unaware of any meetings with Mr Chen.
South Korean companies have borne the brunt of Seoul’s decision last July to host the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system as North Korea steps up its military posturing, conducting two nuclear tests and about 30 ballistic missile launches last year.
Seoul said the Thaad platform would defend it against attacks from the north. But the move has outraged China, which said Thaad undermined its nuclear deterrent and could allow the US to use the platform’s powerful radar to peer deep into its territory. In a newspaper column on Monday, Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, identified objection to the Thaad deployment as one of the ministry’s key policies for this year.
Korean observers said Mr Chen’s visit appeared to be aimed at scaring the country’s conglomerates into lobbying Seoul against deploying Thaad.
Yoo Il-ho, Korea’s finance minister, said this week that there had been “several suspected cases of non-tariff barriers” since last July and that Seoul was seeking to determine China’s “real intention”.
Lotte has faced a series of regulatory probes in China since selling the government a golf course as a base for the Thaad system in November.
A group of South Korea’s opposition lawmakers flew to Beijing on Wednesday to express their concerns over recent economic retaliatory measures.
