Earlier quoted context omitted.
your claim that Chinese influence in South Korea is merely a MAGA conspiracy theory ignores the substantial economic and corporate reality on the ground, and inaccurately projects an irrelevant American political divide onto Korean geopolitics. In Korea, wariness of Chinese influence is a broad, bipartisan issue. there are many Chinese manual laborers in Korea, Chinese capital has also been heavily integrated into to…
I said this precisely because I am Korean and have been working in the IT industry right here in Korea. How many Chinese people do you think work at Naver, Kakao, Carrot, and Baemin in Korea? (Coupang might be an exception. I have often heard colleagues from Coupang badmouth the Chinese people there.) I have never worked in the Bay Area, and I only know about the US software industry through this site, but it is cert…
you keep trying to shoehorn American MAGA culture war talking points into this, which is genuinely baffling if you actually work in Korean tech right now. i'll list the actual instances (many i have not covered here theres too much) look at the very companies you brought up, plus a few others, because the list of sensitive Chinese capital deployments and structural influence in Korea is plenty:
kakaotalk: You mentioned Kakao. Have you looked at Kakao Pay recently? Ant Group (Alipay) is their second-largest shareholder. Between 2018 and May 2024, Kakao Pay handed over 54.2 billion pieces of personal credit datato Alipay without proper user consent. The FSS just hit them with a massive fine in Feb 2026, and the police have literally launched a criminal probe over illegal data exfiltration,. That isn't a right-wing "conspiracy theory," you keep parroting to distract the average HN reader. They aren't gullible as Koreans with anti-American views. that is the systemic hand-off of a nation's financial data to a Chinese partner. your continued insistence seems to be that Chinese political/military/corporate interests are separate and held accountable. again and again that has proven to be false and they are of the same body. you will find numerous articles highlighting this massive industrial complex that China uses to infiltrate the world. to claim otherwise is suspicious because i've never seen a Korean defend China to the length you have gone. So let me ask again, are you Korean Korean or are you of Chinese descent identifying as Korean? Once again for hn users discovering this thread: Koreans are deeply suspicious of Chinese especially those that claim Korean identity due to their loyalty is in question (and its not hard to see why)
telecom/AI: Why do youthink the US government just intervened this week to block Mythos ? It's because of deep security concerns that a South Korean telecom company with suspected ties to China could serve as a backdoor for Beijing to access core AI tech, keep in mind, LG Uplus has famously refused to rip out its Huawei 5G gear despite years of US pressure. The US is actively restricting cutting edge AI exports to Korea specifically because of Chinese infrastructure risks.
Strategic supply chain Capture (ex. batts, EV): Chinese giants like Huayou Cobalt, CATL, and GEM are pouring billions of dollars into joint ventures with top Korean conglomerates (ex. LG Chem, POSCO, SK On) they are explicitly using South Korea as a laundering hub to bypass the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The US government is now heavily scrutinizing these JVs because Chinese capital effectively controls the precursor battery supply chains being built on Korean soil.
gaming/kpop/entertainment: Beyond Tencent's massive double-digit stakes in Karfton, netmarble, and Kakao, ccp capital has been heavily injected into Korean content studios, which historically led to massive domestic blowback over Chinese investors pushing historical revisionism into Korean media.
logistics & ecommerce: aeliExpress and temu aren't just selling cheap plastic\hey are aggressively buying up logistics infrastructure in Korea, capturing massive swaths of consumer data, and financially squeezing domestic platforms.
nobody is arguing that ccp operatives are infiltrating the middle man layer of baemin to sabotage food deliveries. The concern is that Chinese capital is structurally embedded into the highest levels of South Korea's fintech, telecommunications, and advanced manufacturing sectors and America has every right to be concerned at reevaluating the alliance state of not only Korea but Israel or any other US ally that doesn't serve its national interests
yaoung koreans aren't MAGA, and insinuatio is the common talking points to counter anti-Chinese and promote anti-american ideology in korea. if you were really korean you would know intuititvely that they are reacting to the very documented reality that their personal data is being piped to alipay, their telecom infrastructure is triggering us export blocks, and their strategic industries are being utilized as proxy vehicles for chinese capital. domestically chinese pseculators have made real estate unaffordable and filling university dorm rooms meant for koreans while they weather the heat and humidity in tiny goshiwons. jobs have disappeared to china/chinese companies and young koreans have every right to be made at china and the politicians keep pushing chinese interests before its own citizens. korea isn't alone in this threat assessment. koerans have seen what happened to taiwan and hong kong and other countries.
trying to warp the situation on the ground to the average hn user by using irrelevant American culture wars as strawman onto this is intellectually lazy and ignrores the true majority view of young and old koreans.
again i find your words and motivations highly suspicious because ive never ever seen a korean defend china to the lengths you have which made me think you are probably not a real korean-korean.