After China understood that the South Korea Company Lotte would remain firm in its position with the Korean government on the exchange of land for the deployment of the “THAAD” anti-missile system, China’s state media Global Times published an article threatening that Lotte should prepare for the consequences. China announced, “Since China cannot change Lotte’s decision, Chinese society is also firmly determined to let Lotte pay the price for its support of the deployment of ‘THAAD.’ This kind of company that directly serves the deployment of ‘THAAD’ and damages the interests of China should stay far away from China.”
Lotte plans to hold a board meeting at the end of this month to sign the agreement.
The Global Times article revealed that once Lotte decided to exchange its land with the Korea military for the employment of “THAAD” and the news was revealed last year, Lotte’s business in China had already been affected. The development of Lotte World in Shenyang was suspended; also, Lotte’s official flagship store in the [online platform of Alibaba’s] Taobao closed down. Three Lotte supermarkets also closed.
Source: Global Times, February 21, 2017
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2017-02/10169234.html