alt Hacker Newsi'm glad you're enjoying the vibe at your office, but counting the number of Chinese devs sitting next to you in the cafeteria is compltely ireelevant and doesn't back up any of your claims.
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.
> So let me ask again, are you Korean Korean or are you of Chinese descent identifying as Korean?
> 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.
Yes, I am a Korean who is absolutely fed up with this kind of racist rhetoric. I am not defending China. I simply dislike right-wing conspiracy theorists like you.
> 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)
That simply means that you are surrounded by people just like yourself. In fact, it is highly likely because if you are part of the Korean cultural sphere in the U.S., you are highly likely to attend a Korean church, and that is where election conspiracy theorists go around holding lecture tours.
> nobody is arguing that ccp operatives are infiltrating the middle man layer of baemin to sabotage food deliveries.
Baemin is one of the most coveted IT companies in Korea (however actually German company bought them and still operates. Now is Germany infiltrating into Korean economy?). It certainly seems you lack knowledge of the Korean economy.
> 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.
Those Chinese people are the ones living in cheap flats on the upper floor of a lamb skewer shop in Daerim-dong. [0] Among the young Koreans I know, there is no one who is angry about not being able to buy a house in such a place. And blame the university authorities for not building enough dormitories. Are you saying that the mere fact that Chinese international students are coming is the problem?
You could talk endlessly about the impact China is having on the Korean capital market. This is because it has actually happened, and it continues to happen. China's economy is the second largest in the world, while Korea's is only one-tenth the size. Naturally, it is bound to have an impact. As I said, investing in the capital market and 'intertwined/injected into all facet of south korean society' are completely different things. Perhaps you just think that the very existence of Chinese people and Chinese culture is 'infiltration'. Just like the right-wingers in Japan who get angry about the Zainichi shadow government simply because Korean is written on subway station signs.
Anyway, you interrogated me by asking, "So, are you Chinese?" Looking at this, it seems that whatever I say would be meaningless, and it has been very clearly revealed to the sane HN users what kind of person you are.
[0]https://www.hankyung.com/article/202510077522i