SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — South Korea’s Lotte Group will continue to invest in its China business despite diplomatic tensions over the deployment of a United States missile defense system, a Lotte’s top executive, Hwang Kag-gyu, said on Monday (April 3), denying rumors it wants to scale back its China operations.
Chinese authorities last month closed dozens of Lotte retail stores following inspections, ramping up pressure on South Korea’s fifth-largest family-run conglomerate after it agreed to provide land for the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system outside Seoul.
South Korea and its ally the US say the system is designed to thwart nuclear-armed North Korea’s missile threat, but Beijing says its radar can also reach far into China. Chinese state media have called for a boycott of Lotte businesses in response to the THAAD deployment.
China is Lotte’s biggest overseas market and has generated more than 3 trillion won ($2.70 billion) in annual revenue in 2015. It is also one of four strategic markets along with Vietnam, Russia and Indonesia that Lotte has been focusing on, as retail growth in its home market slows.