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A notice posted at a Lotte Mart in Suzhou

The Chinese government is targeting local Lotte Mart stores right and left for suspensions over minor violations of fire safety and other laws.

The actions, which come amid a series of pressure tactics from Beijing over the decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea, are fanning fears that more Lotte Marts could suffer suspensions if the measures continue.

A search for “Lotte Mart” on the Chinese social media site Weibo on Mar. 6 brought up photographs of branches in various locations, with news reports that they had closed down. On Mar. 5, four Lotte Marts suffered sales suspensions for fire safety and other violations. As of 4 pm on Mar. 6, the number of branches suspended in China had shot up to 23, including 20 under the Huadong corporation (15 of them in Jiangsu Province), two in Liaoning Province, and one in Hebei Province. The current number of Lotte Marts in China is 99, which means that one-quarter of them have been shut down - a number that is expected to grow going ahead.

Lotte has said it plans to address the violations so the stores can be reopened in short order. But the decisions from the government already stipulate a closure period of roughly one month. A “temporary closure decision” pasted on the Suzhou branch in Jiangsu Province cited eight grounds, including lack of proper fire alarm system functions, lack of proper sprinkler functions, partial damage to fire exits, and lack of a safety exit in the firefighting pump room, and pronounced the store closed for one month from Mar. 6 until Apr. 4.

The Chinese government has effectively allowed the closures to happen. When asked for his thoughts on the closure of 23 Lotte Marts in China since the THAAD site decision, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a regular briefing on Mar. 6 that Beijing “welcomes South Korean and other foreign companies coming to China to invest and will protect their lawful interests according to the law.”

“At the same time, the operation of foreign companies in China must follow the law and regulations,” he added.

Reports of protests against Lotte Mart and the THAAD deployment have also emerged. A video circulated on social media showed a scene from a plaza in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, where heavy equipment was used to crush bottles of Cheoeum Cheoreom soju (the Korean liquor) and other Lotte products as Chinese flags were displayed and the national anthem played. The hypermarket chain RT-Mart announced on Mar. 5 that it had removed Lotte-related items from all its stores in China and planned to return them after halting sales.

Some products unrelated to Lotte have been protested by the Chinese public simply for being South Korean. Another video making the rounds on social media shows a Chinese man protesting at the site of a demonstration of AmorePacific’s Laneige cosmetics products at a department store in China.

“These Koreans putting cannon units on China’s doorstep need to get out,” the man is seen saying.

He is also showing asking people, “Are you bringing South Korean products here when all of China is boycotting Lotte?” and asking a Chinese event official, “Why is a Chinese person working for a South Korean company?”

Observers can be heard voicing their approval with responses of “That‘s right” during the video.

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

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