White Supremacist Statecraft Humiliates South Korea
An incident that reveals the monster’s heart, and what it means for the US alliance with South Korea.
You might’ve heard the news about ICE conducting a large raid against a Hyundai-LG factory making electric vehicle batteries in Georgia. You might’ve also seen the outrageous footage, which ICE itself filmed and proudly released:
The South Korean public—and the government—is viewing this as a national humiliation. Left and right newspapers are unified (quite rare) in asserting that this cannot stand. The Korean image of the United States is forever changed.1
It’s important to grasp that South Korean identity in the 20th century was forged out of the searing memory of subjugation under Japanese colonialism, making this event rightly triggering for Koreans. It adds insult to injury that the more than 300 Koreans who were detained:
Mostly entered the US legally, under a 90-day visa waiver arrangement that the US has with South Korea;
Were skilled workers performing functions at the EV batter plant that US workers are not qualified to perform; and
Were implementing part of a $26 billion investment Hyundai Motors had agreed to make in the United States, in part because the US arm-twisted South Korea into making the investment and in part because Hyundai was betting on being able to grab a large share of the US EV market since it wouldn’t have to worry about Chinese EV competition.
An abuse of power. US policy has put South Korea in a situation where it could not fulfil its investment pledge without overstaying and fudging visa requirements for skilled workers. As the Financial Times reports:
A senior South Korean official said the companies had been placed in an “impossible position,” as successive US governments pushed them to invest billions of dollars in reviving American industry while refusing to facilitate short-term working visas for projects to be completed on time.
It’s in moments like this that you see the monster’s heart.
There are two aspects of this drama that have been totally missing from media coverage. One is a logical or evidence-based account of why this is happening. The other is anticipation of what the actual consequences will be—i.e., what will the South Korean government do, and what does this mean for the US alliance with South Korea?
What’s inside:
Racial capitalism comes to Korea
Why troop reductions are inevitable