hankyoreh

Shoppers at a Lotte Duty Free store in central Seoul

Following the news that the first THAAD components have already reached South Korea, China -- which has strongly opposed the deployment of the missile defense system -- appears resolved to carry out retaliatory measures.

During a regular press briefing on Mar. 7, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang clearly stated China’s opposition to the THAAD deployment before saying that “all the consequences entailed shall be borne by the US and the ROK.”

“Now that the actual deployment has begun, there will certainly be pressure and retaliatory measures from China. All the cooperation in foreign policy areas that they had conducted as strategic cooperative partners will be affected. If additional progress is made, military retaliatory measures can also be expected. Without political trust, close economic cooperation will also be basically impossible,” said Lu Chao, an analyst at the Border Study Institute at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, during a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh on Mar. 7.

Among China‘s various options, its military response is receiving particular attention. On Mar. 2, the Global Times ran a column by retired rear admiral Luo Yuan, a member of China’s Academy of Military Science, that mentioned acquiring the capacity to launch a surgical strike on the THAAD battery, deploying more missiles designed to counter THAAD and carrying out a “soft kill” to disable the THAAD’s X-band radar.

Lotte businesses in China are facing continuing pressure as well. An increasing number of the 99 Lotte Marts in China have had to shut their doors - four on Mar. 4, 23 on Mar. 6 and 39 in Mar. 7 - with one of three closed for one month. After claiming to have found eight instances of deceptive sales promotions at a Lotte supermarket in the Chaoyang District of Beijing, Chinese authorities fined the store 500,000 yuan (around US$72,500), the Beijing Youth Daily and other newspapers reported. Initial reports suggested that the store had tricked customers by inflating the original sales price, but other reports said there was an issue with how the supermarket reported the discount. After several airlines’ requests for charter flights were turned down by the Civil Aviation Administration of China in January, charter flights to South Korea that Jeju Airlines requested in March were also rejected.

There’s also growing anxiety among South Koreans in China, as unsubstantiated rumors spread that a Korean student was attacked by a mob. “I wasn’t that worried when a series of Japanese shops had to close and Japanese cars were vandalized in 2012, but now it‘s happening to us,” said J, who has been living in Beijing for seven years.

In a Mar. 7 editorial, the Global Times warned that since South Korea has foolishly rushed into the great game between China, the US and Russia, it should be aware that it has made a serious choice that will have a major impact on its future.

Even as the Chinese media ran news bulletins on Mar. 7 that some THAAD components had already reached South Korea, they also highlighted protests in South Korea against the THAAD deployment in reports arguing that the South Korean government had pushed through the deployment despite opposition from the public. State-run China Central Television even ran an interview with Lee Jae-myung, mayor of Seongnam, who is the only presidential candidate who has openly called for the reversal of the THAAD deployment decision.

But there are also indications that China was caught off guard by the acceleration of the deployment represented by the arrival of some THAAD components to South Korea. “They didn’t expect that South Korea would move forward with the THAAD deployment so quickly. Just as the new government in the Philippines last year changed the mood on the South China Sea issue, China was optimistic that this issue would be resolved in its favor when the next administration took power in South Korea, but turning things around has just gotten a lot harder,” said a foreign affairs expert working at a think tank who spoke on condition of anonymity.

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

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