The United States recently wooed Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea to form the “Chip 4 Alliance”, but the alliance is still at a preliminary meeting, and South Korea has been repeatedly “backstabbed” by its big brother, the United States.
After the “Inflation Reduction Act” hit South Korea’s electric vehicle industry, an article published by the Wall Street Journal on the 6th revealed that U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo stole a $5 billion investment project in South Korea with a phone call in June this year.
The article titled “The U.S. Secretary of Commerce advocates a stronger industrial policy to confront China and Russia” tells that in February this year, following the world’s third largest silicon wafer manufacturer and Taiwanese chip company Universal Wafer gave up its plans to build a factory in Germany, Start looking for other suitable places to invest $5 billion to build a factory.
Considering that the cost of building a factory in South Korea is only one-third of that in the United States, Global Wafer originally gave priority to South Korea, but Raimondo and Global Wafer CEO Xu Xiulan spoke by phone for more than an hour in June this year. When Xu Xiulan mentioned that the cost of building a factory in the United States is very high, Raimondo said on the spot: “We will make the math work.” Therefore, two weeks later, Universal Wafer announced on June 27 in the A $5 billion plan to build a new factory in Texas is expected to create 1,500 jobs.
Raimondo emphasized that “in order to compete with China, the most important thing we need to do is to attract investment to the United States.”
U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo. AP picture.
The “cutting Hu” report immediately aroused dissatisfaction in South Korea. The Chosun Ilbo believes that this fully demonstrates the degree of aggressive measures the United States has taken to ensure future economic hegemony and create new jobs. It also cited domestic analysts as saying that the United States is on the “battlefield” of the high-tech industry. , “will not make any concessions” to allies like South Korea, and has become very realistic and calm, to care regarding the pros and cons.
The report also pointed out that the Biden administration has publicly set the “Sino-US competition” as the front line of the “industrial war”, but the United States is still eyeing its ally South Korea as a competitor, and has successively adopted measures to “exclude South Korea”.
It is worth noting that South Korea has been repeatedly “backstabbed” by the United States recently. On August 16, local time, the Biden administration signed the “Inflation Reduction Act” with a total value of $750 billion, which provides a $4,000 tax credit to domestic consumers who buy used electric vehicles and a tax credit of $4,000 to those who buy new electric vehicles. Consumers are offered a $7,500 tax credit.
Although the US media believes that the bill can effectively exclude China from the supply chain of the US electric vehicle industry, the South Korean side believes that the practice will also deal a blow to the related industries in South Korea.
According to a report by Bloomberg on September 2, because major Korean brands such as Hyundai do not have electric vehicle factories in the United States, their main models cannot enjoy the US government’s car purchase subsidies for a considerable period of time. The new regulations of the Biden administration can be said to have slammed the brakes on South Korean car companies that are actively exploring the U.S. market.
The report quoted a senior Seoul official as saying that South Korea viewed the new rules as “betrayal” and “might feel like being stabbed in the back”, which might complicate economic and security cooperation between the close allies of South Korea and the United States. change.
Since South Korea is a key participant in initiatives such as the “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework” and the “Chip Quartet,” South Korea and the U.S. are at odds over the issue, which might jeopardize Biden’s “building a tighter network of partners to counter China,” Bloomberg said. growing influence” efforts.
In this regard, South Korea’s “JoongAng Daily” made more comments, reminding the South Korean government and people not to have illusions regarding the United States. Comments said that the South Korean government and industry seem to hope that the United States can take care of “economic security allies”, but it is unlikely. On top of that, America’s long-term intention is to rebuild the foundation of its entire manufacturing of raw materials, components, production, etc. at home. Biden’s “build back for a better future” slogan is essentially the same as Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan for workers in the Rust Belt. Biden’s signing of the “Inflation Reduction Act” once once more reminded all walks of life in South Korea that the South Korea-US alliance is useless in the face of interests.
