SEOUL/JIAXING, CHINA ¨C On a faded notice pasted to the padlocked doors of the Lotte Mart superstore in Jiaxing, China, a date can still be read: March 6, 2017 ¡ª when the store was ordered to ¡°temporarily¡± close over alleged fire safety issues.
The shuttered entrance and flapping notices are a blunt reminder of how South Korean businesses have become unwitting victims in a year-long diplomatic standoff between Beijing and Seoul.
Last September, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his South Korean counterpart that bilateral ties would suffer if Seoul did not properly handle China¡¯s opposition to the planned deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system in South Korea.
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