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a city in China’s Anhui Province. Anhui Province penalized Lotte Mart for illegal use of audio frequency on internal walkie talkies

As China’s retribution against South Korea for its decision to deploy the THAAD missile defense system begins to take effect, some Chinese merchants have stated that they will not even do business with South Koreans or with the Lotte Group.

On Mar. 1, Weilong, a snack producer best-known for its biscuit sticks, posted a picture on its official Weibo account showing the company’s empty display stand at a Lotte Mart in Yancheng, a city in Jiangsu Province. “We’ve currently removed all our products from the Lotte Mart in Yancheng, and we’ll be gradually doing the same at other Lotte Marts around the country,” the company said.

“We won’t be supplying any more products to Lotte or doing any other business with it in the future,” Weilong declared in the same post. As of 3 pm, more than 350,000 Weibo users had liked the post, leaving more than 70,000 comments praising the company for its decision. “We’ve kicked all South Korean companies off the platform we operate, too,” one commenter said.

In a post on his Weibo account on Feb. 28, Leo Ou Chen, CEO of Jumei, China’s largest e-commerce website for cosmetics, announced plans for a boycott of Lotte, explaining that all Lotte products would be excluded from the “301” event on Mar. 1 marking the 7th anniversary of the company’s establishment. After Chen posted that Jumei would not carry any Lotte products in the future, as of the afternoon of Mar. 2, the post had received more than 140,000 likes. A photo was posted on Mar. 2 on a social network used by many South Koreans in Beijing showing a piece of paper on the door of a Chinese noodle shop that said, “This restaurant does not accept South Korean customers.”

Chinese officials outside a Lotte Mart in Wuhu

While Chinese public opinion is turning against South Korea, the Chinese government is maintaining its “hands-off” attitude. “At the end of the day the Chinese market and consumers will determine whether a foreign company is successful in China,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang during the regular press briefing on Mar. 2, reiterating the government’s position.

China is also declining to address the Lotte Group’s suspicions that hackers were responsible for the group’s Chinese website being taken down on Feb. 28. Geng declined to comment about Lotte’s “speculation,” only stating that “China opposes all forms of cyber attacks.”

Instead, the Chinese media are lining up to offer specific plans for exacting further retribution for THAAD. In an article contributed to the Global Times called “10 Ways to Deal with THAAD,” Luo Yuan, a rear admiral in the reserves and a member of the State High-Level Academic Committee at China’s Academy of Military Science, suggested declaring the THAAD deployment site (Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province) to be a high-risk site presenting a military threat to China and, if necessary, to plan a surgical strike. He also proposed deploying missiles in China to counter THAAD, strengthening ties with Russia and even suspending cooperation with the US, Japan and South Korea.

In an editorial on Mar. 2, the China Daily argued that the THAAD deployment will turn South Korea into part of the US global missile defense system and that China has no choice but to take retribution to defend its national interest. But the editorial also called for South Korea to take forward-looking measures, noting that the “door to dialogue is not closed” and that “the ball is in South Korea’s court.”

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]