From stubbornly claiming "China's sanctions have little impact" to "hoping China will lift the sanctions as soon as possible", South Korea only took 8 days.

According to Yonhap News, on the 22nd, Park Han-kyu, head of the Department of Trade Negotiation of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy of South Korea, held a video conference with Li Chenggang, representative of China's Ministry of Commerce for international trade negotiations and vice minister, to exchange views on China's sanctions against Hanwha Ocean's subsidiaries in the United States, as well as strengthening controls on rare earth exports.

The report stated that Park expressed concern about China's sanctions during the call, emphasizing that South Korea is willing to maintain communication with China and actively negotiate to encourage China to lift the sanctions as soon as possible.

South Korea calls on China to lift sanctions

Park's statement is interesting because South Korea's attitude was not so compliant just 8 days ago.

On October 14th, China's Ministry of Commerce announced that it had included five U.S. subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean in the sanction list, citing the reason that these five companies cooperated with the U.S. government in initiating a Section 301 investigation against China's shipbuilding industry, which has harmed China's sovereignty, security, and development interests, as well as the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.

South Korea received the news almost immediately, but at that time the reaction of South Korean media was surprisingly calm. For example, some South Korean media claimed that the sanctions by China would "hardly have any practical impact," as Hanwha's U.S. subsidiaries had no connection with China.

But did China's sanctions really have no impact on Hanwha?

In fact, if there were no impact, the U.S. State Department wouldn't have been so angry and jumped out to condemn it.

On the 17th, the U.S. State Department issued a statement saying that the U.S. strongly opposed China's actions against Hanwha, calling it "extremely irresponsible" and "aimed at undermining the cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea in revitalizing the American shipbuilding and manufacturing industries."

This was South Korea's attitude at the time: "Don't panic, it's not a big deal"

As the U.S. statement said, Hanwha's subsidiaries in the United States mainly participated in Trump's "Make America's Shipbuilding Great Again" project (MASGA). The Philadelphia Shipyard in the United States had already been acquired by Hanwha last year, and this August, Hanwha also announced an investment of $5 billion for upgrading the docks and infrastructure.

But China's sanctions undoubtedly prevented the U.S. shipbuilding industry from "becoming great again."

On the 17th, the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration released a more detailed assessment report, stating that the impact of China's sanctions on South Korean companies would not be immediate, but could cause losses of 60 million dollars over the next 1 to 2 years, and the specific scale of the loss is still difficult to assess. "The only thing worth being relieved is that South Korea and the U.S. have not yet signed the project contract (MASGA) officially."

South Korea is also preparing to invest 150 billion dollars in American shipyards

Additionally, another report from the South Korean Defense Procurement Project Agency pointed out that more worrying is the expansion of the scope of China's sanctions, such as sanctioning the headquarters of South Korean companies or adding more companies to the list, thereby cutting the supply chain of shipbuilding parts, which would further increase the construction costs of American shipyards and extend the construction period of commercial and military ships.

To put it simply, even if the U.S. and South Korea avoid using Chinese components, the shipyards are not directly connected to China, but the vulnerability of the American shipbuilding industry supply chain will eventually lead some Chinese components or equipment to flow into American shipyards.

Previously, the U.S. defense procurement evaluation institution "Gowen" admitted that the most advanced "Ford" aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy used more than thousands of Chinese parts, including 6,500 computer chips.

Even the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier is like that, so it's easy to imagine whether Hanwha's renovated shipyards in the U.S. and the ships it built can completely get rid of reliance on Chinese equipment, technology, or parts.

Trump is waiting to see the new ship, but now it can't be built

Therefore, this is why South Korea's tone changed 180 degrees within just 8 days - there is no other reason, regardless of how South Korean public opinion tried to downplay the impact of China's sanctions, Hanwha Company knows the bitterness best.

Hanwha's experience also reminds South Korea: As a small country sandwiched between China and the U.S., South Korea can naturally pursue the strategy of "economic reliance on China and security reliance on the U.S." without offending either side, but it should not expect to sell China's interests to please the U.S., because South Korea cannot afford this cost.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7564334676337295922/

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