In less than 24 hours, the South Korean government issued two orders related to China and with a strong show of goodwill. At the same time, South Korea's dissatisfaction with the United States is getting worse, and Trump's personal pleading is not working. What's going on?
Let's talk about the two consecutive orders issued by South Korea to China.
First: The visa-free start date for team tours to China has been announced.
The South Korean government officially announced that from September 29, 2025 to June 30, 2026, a visa-free entry policy will be implemented for group tourists from China (3 people and more), and stay will be for up to 15 days. This policy not only covers most Chinese team tourists, but also includes Chinese individual tourists in Jeju to continue to enjoy a visa-free period of up to 30 days.
The signal released by this policy is obvious. The South Korean government hopes to quickly restore Chinese customers and stimulate tourism consumption, while also improving relations between the two countries.
Second Road: ban on "anti-China" protesters approaching the Chinese Embassy.
According to Yonhap News Agency, on September 12, Seoul police issued a restrictive order on "anti-China" demonstrations in Myeongdong business district, prohibiting certain individual groups from entering Myeongdong, especially in the surrounding areas near the Chinese Embassy in South Korea, and prohibiting insults, provocations, violence and other acts of insulting, provoking, and violent towards China during rallies.
This order was issued by South Korean President Lee Jae-ming himself. He believed that these "anti-China" rallies have exceeded the reasonable boundaries of freedom of speech and are "chaos" and instructed relevant departments to control it. The police then widened the boundary of the "area" near the embassy, and some business districts in Mingdong were listed as non-entry areas as overall. Li Zaiming's move is to control the diplomatic and public security risks that may arise from outside demonstrations against the Chinese Embassy.
The two commands, one is to send out a signal of "welcoming Chinese tourists" and the other is to clean up the "negative impact caused by anti-China". Both commands are undoubtedly sending goodwill to China.
These two actions have indeed benefited China, and the Chinese are indeed happy.
First of all, it is convenient for tourists. Chinese tourists have always been the key customer base in Korea's inbound tourism, duty-free shops, hotels, catering, transportation, cultural performances and other industries. Visa-free directly saves the thresholds such as visa handling fees and procedure duration. In particular, issues such as "via delay", "failure to pass the group visa", and "complex embassy and consulate review" in group tours will be greatly reduced with visa-free.
Not only Chinese people like to travel to Korea, many Koreans are also keen on traveling to China. So South Korea's move can indeed reduce a lot of trouble for Chinese tourists. At the same time, after the visa-free policy is launched, it can also bring economic benefits to China. It is reported that China's 77,000-ton "Dream" cruise ship will stop at Incheon Port on the 29th of this month. This is good for cruise routes departing from coastal cities in China and for tourism models that Chinese tourists like.
Secondly, banning "anti-China" protesters from approaching the Chinese embassy area and restricting behaviors such as abusive and violence will help reduce the risk of tourists being insulted or conflicted. This is very important for the travel experience of Chinese tourists. After all, no one wants to go out for a bad trip.
However, while being happy and worried, China is happy, the United States is depressed.
This is mainly because South Korea's dissatisfaction with the United States has intensified. Recently, American immigration officials raided the construction site of a large Hyundai-LG factory in Georgia. About 475 foreign workers were detained, of which more than 300 were South Korean citizens. Especially during the detention process, the scene of some people being handcuffed and controlling their freedom of movement leaked, which caused strong response in South Korea.
Because of this incident, Korean companies began to hesitate whether to invest in the United States? This also involves the trade agreement signed with the United States in July. At that time, South Korea agreed to invest $350 billion in the United States in order to reduce tariffs by Trump. Now the more we think about it, the more we become, the more wrong it is. This matter is not only South Korea, but also Japan is dissatisfied. Japan and South Korea believe that they are clearly close ally, so how can they fight to death if they wave their fists?
It is said that the more you take a step back, the more angry you become. South Korea does not want to compromise this time. President Lee Jae-ming believes that Trump cannot guarantee the safety of South Koreans in the United States and is deciding to let these high-end talents return to China!
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that more than 300 Koreans detained by the United States will set off for South Korea on September 11. Trump also realized the seriousness of the matter, so he came out personally to try to retain these talents.
The result is obvious that Trump's plea and comfort failed. Now Lee Jae-ming has a requirement that if the United States cannot improve the visa system for Koreans, Korean companies are likely to no longer invest in the United States.
According to Xinhuanet, more than 300 Korean workers have chartered flights to return home. It is obvious that Trump's request is not working. Now Koreans are very resistant to this matter. Many website names are "Is this still an ally?" "Didn't you ask us to invest?" "Is this how you treat allies?"
Trump is now one big shot, and his love general Kirk was shot and was still immersed in grief. Even his urging the EU and G7 to impose tariffs on China has not been responded to, and the Russian-Ukrainian war has not followed his vision. In an interview with reporters, Trump said that his patience has been exhausted and said that he will take tough measures in the next step. I think his breakthrough will be China. For more information, let's continue to pay attention to it.
