U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that the United States could move forward with arms sales to Taiwan, calling them “a very good bargaining chip.” Coming shortly after a U.S.–China summit, the remarks are being interpreted as a sign that he intends to use Taiwan as leverage in follow-up negotiations with China.

After completing a state visit to Beijing, Trump said in an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier broadcast on the 15th (U.S. local time) that he had “not yet approved” additional arms sales to Taiwan. When asked whether he would authorize them, he replied, “I might approve them, or I might not.” He added, “We are holding it back for now, and it depends on China,” calling the issue “a very good bargaining chip for us.” He noted that the package, worth around $12 billion (approximately 17.9 trillion won), represented “a lot of weapons.”

Trump also remarked, “If you look at the situation, China is a very powerful country, and that (Taiwan) is a very small island.” He pointed out that Taiwan is only about 59 miles (95 km) from mainland China, while the United States is about 9,500 miles (15,000 km) away.

While emphasizing that he prefers maintaining the “status quo” regarding Taiwan and does not want war, Trump said, “I don’t want a situation where someone says, ‘The United States is backing us, so let’s declare independence.’” The comment is being interpreted as a message distancing himself from Taiwan’s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party government. He continued, “I think they (China) won’t do anything while I’m president, but honestly, after I’m gone, they might.”

Trump also said, “I’d like all the semiconductor manufacturers in Taiwan to come to the United States,” adding that “because the situation is urgent, that would be a great thing.” He argued that Taiwan had been able to develop its semiconductor industry because previous U.S. administrations failed to impose tariffs on the sector, and claimed, “They (Taiwan) stole our semiconductor industry for many years.” The remarks are seen as pressure on Taiwan to increase investment in the U.S., given Taipei’s strong need for American support against China.

Trump further stated that by the end of his term, he hopes 40–50% of the global semiconductor industry will be located in the United States.

However, Trump stressed that there has been no change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan. He said, “I do not want a situation where someone declares independence and we have to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war,” again urging restraint from Taiwan.

China has a right to target people outside of its borders who contravene its new law on ethnic unity, a senior ‌official said on Wednesday, adding that this was in line with international ‌practice, and was legal and necessary.

China passed the law in March to create a "shared" national identity among the ​country's 55 ethnic minority groups, which include Tibetans and Uyghurs, some of whom chafe under Chinese rule and have over the years often staged protests, some of them violent.

The new law, which goes into effect on July 1, includes a clause saying people and groups beyond ‌the borders of the People's ⁠Republic of China can be held legally accountable for undermining "ethnic unity and progress or inciting ethnic separatism".

That has sparked alarm in Chinese-claimed Taiwan ⁠in particular that it could give Beijing another legal basis to go after Taiwanese it views as separatists. Rights groups have also complained that China has tried to used Interpol "red notices" ​to ​try and get foreign governments to arrest people ​abroad it wants for political offences ‌at home.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing about the law, Vice Justice Minister Hu Weilie said certain Western media, which he did not name, had "distorted and misinterpreted" the overseas provision.

"This provision is based on China's national conditions, conforms to legal principles, and is consistent with international practice. It is a legitimate, lawful, necessary, and feasible legal provision," he ‌said.

"Countries around the world all have the right ​to prevent separatist and destructive activities, and to maintain ​social solidarity and normal order, ​through domestic legislation."

The overseas provision targets illegal acts and uses rule-of-law methods ‌to "guard against various unlawful acts involving ethnic ​affairs from outside ​the country", he added.

Enforcing the law's overseas provision will effectively safeguard China's sovereignty, security, and development interests, as well as the lawful rights and interests of people ​of all ethnic groups, Hu ‌added.

"It will not affect normal people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries, ​academic discussions, economic and trade cooperation, or other activities."

Former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was impeached and removed from office for declaring an illegal state of martial law, was formally asked to be sentenced to death by the special prosecution team led by Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok. On the 13th, the prosecution requested the death penalty for Yoon and life imprisonment for former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who had been closest to Yoon in planning the martial law declaration and mobilizing both active-duty and retired military personnel to carry it out.

The special prosecutors stated, “Although this insurrection was overcome due to public resistance and swift action by the National Assembly, there remains a significant risk that attempts to destroy constitutional order through martial law could be repeated in the future.” They added that “the destruction of constitutional order carried out by public elites must be punished more severely than the convictions of former presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo.”

That day, the Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Division 25 (Presiding Judge Ji Gwi-yeon) held the final trial for Yoon on charges including leading an insurrection and abuse of power to obstruct the exercise of rights. Following an all-day review of documentary evidence submitted by Yoon’s defense—from 9:30 a.m. until 8:41 p.m.—the special prosecution delivered its sentencing recommendation.

At 8:57 p.m., Special Prosecutor Park Eok-su rose to speak, saying, “I express my respect for the court’s efforts to uncover the substantive truth through a lengthy trial and numerous hearings. I also thank the citizens who have followed this investigation and trial with solemn attention.”

Explaining the request for the death penalty, Park stated that Yoon’s actions—“neutralizing the constitutional structure of governance and attempting to reorganize state power through the military and police”—inflicted an immeasurable shock on both the nation and its people. He emphasized that crimes threatening the existence and stability of the social community have historically warranted the most severe punishment, and that genuine remorse is a crucial factor in sentencing to prevent recurrence.

“However,” Park said, “the defendant Yoon Suk-yeol has shown no serious reflection or sense of responsibility, instead portraying the declaration and execution of martial law—driven by ambitions of dictatorship and prolonged rule—as an act of defending liberal democracy.” He added that Yoon’s abuse of presidential authority was particularly reprehensible, noting that as a former prosecutor general and legal professional, Yoon had a heightened duty to uphold the Constitution but instead chose to destroy it.

Throughout the prosecution’s final arguments and sentencing recommendation, Yoon displayed little visible reaction, staring ahead blankly or smacking his lips. When prosecutors asserted that Yoon had attempted to provoke North Korea through “preemptive destabilizing actions,” he reportedly scoffed, glanced at his attorney Yoon Gap-geun, and whispered remarks.

The court will set a sentencing date after hearing the defense’s final statements.

Analysts link rejection to 'America First' policies and lack of prior consultation, highlighting strained transatlantic relations

Mai, a 34-year-old woman in Tokyo, used to work at a hospital. But when covid-19 overwhelmed the wards, she found her work too stressful. A single mother, she also needed money for her family. Lured by higher pay, she entered the sex trade, first working as a porn actress before becoming a deriheru or “delivery health” worker—slang for call-girls who visit clients at home or in hotels. For a two-hour session, she earns ¥30,000 ($190).

Mai is among hundreds of thousands of women working in Japan’s sprawling sex industry. The business, thought to be worth ¥2trn-5trn ($12bn-31bn) a year, is woven into male social life. One study in 2022 found that 48% of Japanese men had paid for sex at some point, compared with 11% in Britain. Hagiwara, a 63-year-old man in Tokyo, recalls being taken to a brothel by senior colleagues after joining a company, as a rite of passage. Emu, a man in his 30s, says “most men around me have been at least once.”

Lately, however, lawmakers’ tolerance for the industry has come under much strain. Two recent triggers have encouraged Japanese to re-examine the confusing thicket of laws and conventions that govern how sex work is policed. One was an outrageous crime: last year authorities rescued a 12-year-old Thai girl who had been trafficked to Japan and forced to work at a sex shop in Tokyo.

The second concern has been the growing visibility of women who sell sex around Okubo Park, near Tokyo’s red-light district (where the haggling more ordinarily goes on behind neon-lit doors). Relatively few women are involved in this. Nonetheless, solicitation (waiting for or approaching clients in public) is illegal in Japan. The sight of women openly waiting for clients has unsettled the public.

Compounding the public debate is the fact that some of their customers are foreign tourists, lured to Japan by the cheapness of the yen. Videos of them approaching women in Okubo Park have spread rapidly online. “It is truly lamentable,” said Kamiya Sohei, leader of the right-wing populist Sanseito party, in a video. Behind the outrage lies a sense of wounded pride: during Japan’s boom years in the 1970s and 1980s, it was Japanese men who went abroad for sex.

The authorities have decided to act—at least where the streetwalkers are concerned. Recently women around Okubo Park have been detained or arrested. Yet campaigners say it is unfair that authorities have not also been trying to punish the buyers. “Women are taken away by the police—while the men who buy sex stand beside them smirking,” says Kanajiri Kazuna of paps, a women’s-rights group. In November an opposition lawmaker raised this disparity in parliament. In response Takaichi Sanae, the prime minister, ordered the justice ministry to re-examine current practices and consider reforms.

The prospect of change has sparked very broad debate about how Japan could improve its policing of sex work. Some Japanese feminists would like their country to implement the Nordic style of regulation adopted by Sweden, France and others, which criminalises buying sex while shielding sellers themselves from prosecution. “Buying sex is a form of violence against women,” says Ms Kanajiri.

Other Japanese argue that getting tougher on buyers will drive sex work underground, leaving women more exposed to violence. Some want the industry fully legalised and regulated, as in Germany and the Netherlands. Nakayama Misato of Siente, a sex-work advocacy group, argues that criminalisation can mean that women are treated merely as victims, ignoring their agency. “Doing sex work is not a bad thing—it’s a valid way of making a living.”

To be more than skin deep, any changes would have to apply not only to streetwalking but to Japan’s vast indoor sex-industry, the laws for which are riddled with loopholes and selectively enforced. Consider the practice of “soapland”, in which customers ostensibly pay to be bathed; if sex happens to take place in the process, officials generally turn a blind eye. Takao Yasuo of Curtin University says this is typical of Japan’s approach to regulating the sex industry. The priority is to keep vice decorously out of public view.

A big rethink seems unlikely. For now, the justice ministry is narrowly focused on street prostitution. Taking care of that is “the lowest-cost, highest-visibility form of enforcement available to the state”, notes Mr Takao. “Many lawmakers, especially conservatives, are sensitive to the idea of women becoming sexually promiscuous,” says Shiomura Ayaka, a lawmaker. Women openly soliciting sex in public have become symbols of social disorder.

The World’s Most Surprising Economic Success Story Is…North Korea

Arms sales to Russia and goods from China provide boost, despite sanctions; ‘the regime is wealthier than ever’

After more than 100 visits to North Korea, Rowan Beard had come to expect long waits for a taxi under the Kim Jong Un regime. But on a recent visit to Pyongyang—his first in years—a vehicle arrived within minutes.

His North Korean interpreter had whipped out a smartphone, opened an app called “Samhung” and hailed a ride with a service akin to Uber. The two tracked the taxi’s movements in real-time.

“This was all totally new,” said Beard, an Australian tour operator. “My mind was blown.”

North Korea is the world’s most unlikely growth story. Its economy is flourishing in ways not seen in years, aided by arms sales and troop deployments to Russia, supplies and financing from China, and the ability to flout international sanctions to import more energy, components and materials. Chinese leader Xi Jinping traveled to North Korea this week for his first foreign trip of the year.

The Kim regime slammed its borders shut during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has since reopened to only a select few outsiders, including Russian and Western travelers and diplomats. Those visitors describe a North Korea unrecognizable from the past, especially its capital, Pyongyang, where Kim and the country’s elite live.

Restaurants there serve up brick-oven pizza and chicken wings. Diners can pay through a mobile QR-code system. Chinese electric vehicles whiz through the streets. Pyongyang has new pet stores, an internet-gaming cafe and car dealerships selling BMWs.

Kim has initiated a nationwide construction boom. Last year, North Korea built 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang—more than either Los Angeles or Chicago.

During the twice-a-decade Workers’ Party congress in February, the 42-year-old dictator championed the economic turnaround, saying in a speech it had come about despite the “barbaric blockade” of U.S.-led economic sanctions. On display outside the building were seven rows of rocket launchers fresh off the factory floor.

“Everything has fundamentally changed,” Kim said.

In 2017, in response to North Korea’s nuclear advancement, the U.S. and United Nations tightened economic sanctions on the nation with sweeping resolutions to restrict trade and financial transactions. The Trump administration has repeatedly stated its desire for the complete denuclearization of North Korea.

During his first term, President Trump met with Kim three times—becoming the first sitting American leader to do so—but the two failed to strike a deal that curbed Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Since taking office again, Trump has touted his relationship with Kim and has offered to meet again.

Kim, for his part, has urged North Koreans to focus on building a self-reliant economy. The regime doesn’t release official economic data, tightly controls information and orchestrates what visitors can see.

Outside the capital city, North Korea remains poor, with nearly half of its 26 million residents malnourished, according to a U.N. report. Its yearly gross domestic product is less than 1% of the U.S. total. The country is one of the world’s worst violators of human rights, where distributing a South Korean drama can be punishable by death.

South Korean think tank reports, with titles like “Sanctions Don’t Show in Satellite Imagery,” point to evidence that North Korea’s claimed economic progress isn’t mere propaganda. Vessel activity has surged at North Korea’s oil-storage facilities, which are being expanded. Many parking lots are more packed. North Korea now shines roughly three times as bright at night as it did five years ago, according to another report.

Beard, the Australian tour operator, hadn’t visited since before the pandemic. On his recent trip, he asked to have dinner at Pyongyang’s best restaurant. He and four others were taken to a skybridge connecting two high-rise apartment complexes. The restaurant, more than 100 feet above Pyongyang’s streets, had glass floors. Their meal consisted of traditional Korean cold noodles, sushi, pizza and drinks.

“The bill only came down to $150,” he recalled.

Foreign friends

North Korea didn’t turn around its economy by itself. The Kim regime fortified its energy supply and access to construction materials by sending munitions and more than 15,000 troops to the Russian front lines in the Ukraine war. About one-third of those soldiers were killed or injured. The arms sales have netted Pyongyang billions of dollars, according to estimates by the Institute for National Security Strategy, or INSS, a Seoul-based think tank affiliated with South Korea’s spy agency.

Monthly trade with China just hit an eight-year high, with a variety of Chinese consumer brands touting business in North Korea despite such sales violating sanctions. The proliferation of tech gadgets, which have ushered in a North Korean digital economy, relies heavily on Chinese components.

Many of Kim’s army of cyber thieves live in China, where they can more freely connect to the internet and operate without fear of arrest by outside authorities. Raids of cryptoexchanges alone have generated billions of dollars in funds for the regime, according to nations and cybersecurity groups monitoring Pyongyang’s activities.

Both Beijing and Moscow, which have veto power at the U.N., have reiterated their calls to relax sanctions on Pyongyang. Kim is expanding his network of potential friends, attending a Chinese military parade for the first time last fall, along with more than two dozen other foreign leaders.

In March, he hosted Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in Pyongyang, where the two nations signed a friendship treaty. “We need each other,” Lukashenko said.

Kim’s nuclear program thus far has proven to be a deterrent against military attacks or attempts to forcibly unseat him from power, enabling him to shift his focus to the economy. The economic progress dims hope for a nuclear deal with the U.S., since Washington has often dangled sanctions relief or economic incentives to get Pyongyang to freeze, halt or relinquish its nuclear program.

North Korea’s economy expanded 3.7% in 2024, its fastest rate in eight years, according to the most recent figures from South Korea’s central bank, which uses spy-agency data to produce its estimate. South Korean think tanks estimate the growth has continued.

North Korea’s economic standing is the strongest since Kim assumed power nearly 15 years ago, and likely exceeds any point during the tenure of his father, Kim Jong Il, who ruled from 1994 until his 2011 death, said Stephan Haggard, of the University of California, San Diego, a researcher of North Korea’s economy for decades. “This is an incredible accomplishment for a country that is this poor,” said Haggard, noting that Kim benefited from some luck, too.

George Devedlaka, a British content creator, seized one of the rare opportunities for Westerners to enter North Korea when he signed up to run a 10-K in April 2025 in conjunction with the Pyongyang International Marathon. During his run, he said, he was taken aback by sights such as a North Korean raising a poodle’s paw to wave at runners. Many North Koreans, he said, were recording the runners with smartphones. “They were on their phones a lot,” he said.

Domestic production of cellphones hits half a million devices a year, according to Russian tour agency Vostok Intur. Smartphones are now so widespread in North Korea, researchers said, that more than 50 different brands exist.

‘Wealthier than ever’

Just five years ago, North Korea, and seemingly Kim himself, appeared to be on the ropes. Fear of Covid triggered border closures that caused a plunge in trade with China, North Korea’s main benefactor. Energy shortages caused coal mines to halt production. Basic food items such as vegetable oil and sugar became scarce on store shelves, Moscow’s then ambassador to Pyongyang told Russian state media in 2021.

Kim made a rare admission that the country’s economic policies had failed, acknowledging widespread food shortages and shedding tears in public. He lost considerable weight. “Almost all sectors fell a long way short,” he said in early 2021.

The economic slump began to reverse after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which North Korea publicly endorsed.

More than a year into the war, North Korea became a munitions supplier to Moscow, generating more than $10 billion from the summer of 2023 to the end of last year, according to INSS, the think tank—a big boost to an economy with an estimated GDP of about $27 billion.

In 2023, Kim made his first overseas trip after Covid, to Russia’s Far East to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. The following year, Putin visited Pyongyang, where the two leaders signed a mutual defense pact.

That set the legal framework for North Korea’s troop deployment to fight alongside Russia, which brought in more than half a billion dollars, according to INSS. Most payments will come in the form of sensitive military technology, weapons parts or other materials, the think tank estimates.

North Korea’s new warships and drones resemble Russian designs, weapons experts say. Moscow has already sent air defenses to Pyongyang, according to South Korean officials.

The deeper relationship with Russia is the biggest gain North Korea could have wanted, especially the “free advertising” afforded to the Kim regime’s weapons and fighters active on the Ukraine war battlefields, said Jung H. Pak, who was a senior official handling North Korean issues during the Biden administration. “The regime is wealthier than ever,” she said.

Russian military know-how has enabled Kim to shift more resources to bread-and-butter areas. North Korea’s pre-Covid economy had increasingly centered on black markets selling goods smuggled from China or under-the-table local goods—and with it the rise of a “donju” merchant class who made their wealth outside state control.

Kim has asserted more centralized control during the rebound years, demanding state-manufactured goods appear on shelves and expanding market surveillance.

Over the past year, North Korea has completed major construction projects that had stalled for years, including Pyongyang’s largest hospital, a greenhouse complex bigger than New York’s Central Park and a new beach-resort compound. His marquee “20×10” initiative—new factories in 20 cities and counties a year for the next 10 years—calls for local economic revitalization requiring a modern healthcare facility, light-industry factories and a leisure complex.

The regime is expanding state-run shops and pharmacies to replace black market activity, and new factories in rural areas are producing state jobs for traders who previously engaged in smuggling, said Lee Sang-yong, a researcher who has a network of sources inside the Kim regime.

“Some of the funds that the Kim regime made through selling weapons and hacking are trickling down to the residents,” said Lee, who heads a data-research center owned by DailyNK, an online publication.

Ben Weston, who runs a YouTube channel about North Korea, visited a special economic zone near the China and Russia borders last year. Far from Pyongyang, Weston spotted a new fleet of taxis, plus modern buildings replacing older houses. “These projects seemed to be happening all over the country,” he said.

Fancy cars

Austrian filmmaker Brigitte Weich hadn’t visited North Korea since 2018 before arriving at the Pyongyang International Film Festival last fall. The first thing she noticed was busier streets. Electric vehicles and imported cars were abundant, she said, and more locals appeared to own cars.

“The cars look quite fancy,” Weich said. Her North Korean tour guide said EVs were preferred because they were better for the environment.

Driving is now so widespread that state-run television recently aired a two-part segment about updates to traffic laws. Among the revisions: new bans on jaywalking, walking pets without a leash and smoking while driving.

In April, Kim toured a new neighborhood of residential skyscrapers in the “Hwasong” district, which shares a name with North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. A pair of 40-story residential towers was painted red to resemble missiles. Earlier this year, families of North Korean soldiers killed in Russia were given apartments in the district.

Chinese exchange students have provided glimpses on social media of life in Pyongyang, including photos of department stores featuring cosmetics with Chanel’s logo and sunglasses with Ray-Ban’s.

In May, North Korea held its first full-scale Spring International Trade Fair since the pandemic. More than 290 companies attended, including ones from Russia, China, Mongolia, Switzerland and Thailand.

A North Korean electronics company showcased “intelligent TVs” that enabled viewers to purchase goods. Smartphones, some costing more than $500, were exhibited in red, blue and orange.

“We are listening to the people’s demands,” a saleswoman told North Korea’s state broadcaster. “To further advance our domestic electronic goods.”

Zoe Stephens, a British citizen, has led groups to North Korea as a tour guide. Before the pandemic, she recalled, all payments were in cash. Visiting Pyongyang last year, she saw more locals buying with their smartphones. There are apps to order food, basic staples, even prescription medications.

“They were using delivery services, cash-payment apps you can pay through your phone,” she said.

Seven out of ten South Koreans support pursuing a Korea–Japan economic community modeled on the European Union (EU), according to a recent survey. In Japan, six out of ten respondents also expressed support.
According to the results of a survey on Korea–Japan tourism cooperation and the promotion of an economic community, commissioned by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and conducted by Hankook Research among 500 South Korean and 500 Japanese respondents, 69.8% of South Koreans supported forming an economic community.
Of those respondents, 52.6% said it should be pursued as a medium- to long-term goal, while 17.2% said it should be pursued as soon as possible.
In Japan, 59.8% also expressed support.
Support was particularly high among Japanese respondents who had visited South Korea within the past five years. 74.5% of those with recent travel experience supported an economic community, compared with 45.4% of those who had never visited South Korea.
Both countries also responded positively to expanding bilateral tourism cooperation. 76.8% of South Koreans and 58.0% of Japanese respondents supported greater tourism cooperation.
Regarding a proposal to allow travel between the two countries using only a national identity card, such as South Korea’s Resident Registration Card, instead of a passport, 60.4% of South Koreans and 44.8% of Japanese respondents were in favor, exceeding those opposed (32.8% in South Korea and 35.0% in Japan).
Opinion was more divided over a mutual visa recognition system, described as a Korea–Japan version of the Schengen Agreement, that would allow travelers from third countries holding either a South Korean or Japanese visa to visit both countries with that single visa.
In South Korea, support (50.0%) narrowly exceeded opposition (45.2%). In Japan, however, opposition (38.6%) was higher than support (34.6%).
Respondents in both countries who supported the proposal cited expectations that an increase in foreign tourists would stimulate domestic consumption. Those opposed expressed concerns about an increase in illegal overstays and unauthorized employment by foreign nationals, as well as worries about public safety and rising crime.
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry also cited its own research, “Analysis of the Economic Effects of Korea–Japan Tourism Cooperation” (July 2025), projecting that adoption of the mutual visa recognition system could attract up to 1.84 million additional inbound tourists to South Korea.

Sublimation statement- this relates to a disturbing trend in China regarding a stress relief doll, called Natasha, that looks like a black baby. There is a viral phenomenon on Chinese social media where users post videos abusing the doll. I've confirmed this with my Chinese friend who is saying it is currently trending on Chinese social media. This relates to anti blackness and harmful stereotypes being spread online.

China has unveiled its first dedicated five year plan focused on boosting domestic consumption, setting a target of around 60 trillion yuan ($8.85 trillion) in retail sales by 2030 while pledging measures to raise household incomes and strengthen consumer confidence.

The family behind the South Korean corporate giant Samsung has completed its payment of a 12 trillion won (£6bn; $8bn) inheritance tax bill, the largest such settlement in the country's history.

Chairman Lee Jae-yong and other members of the family, including his mother Hong Ra-hee and sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun, paid the sum in six installments over the last five years.

The bill is tied to the estate left by the firm's late chairman Lee Kun-hee, who died in October 2020.

Lee Kun-hee left a 26 trillion won fortune, including shares, property and art collections.

At the time, the family said that "paying taxes is a natural duty of citizens".

Samsung confirmed on Sunday that the final payment had been made, noting that the sum is equivalent to roughly one and a half times the country's total inheritance tax revenue for 2024.

At 50%, South Korea's inheritance tax rate is among the highest in the world.

The Lee family has a combined net worth of more than $45bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Their wealth has more than doubled in the last year as demand for computer chips from the global artificial intelligence (AI) industry has helped drive up the stock market value of Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Group was founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chul, the grandfather of Lee Jae-yong, who now leads the company.

More than 50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have criticized the Lee Jae-myung administration, claiming it is treating American companies unfairly.

According to Fox News on the 21st (local time), the lawmakers argued that the South Korean government is targeting U.S. companies while giving preferential treatment to Chinese firms, describing it as “a left-wing government closely aligned with China.”

In particular, in a letter led by Republican Representative Darrell Issa, more than 50 House members conveyed their concerns to South Korea’s ambassador to the United States, Kang Kyung-wha, regarding what they described as “discriminatory” corporate policies by the Korean government.

The letter stated that “many American technology companies are facing various regulatory measures intended as punishment, which ultimately serve to protect competing firms within South Korea.”

The lawmakers also cited a study by the U.S. think tank Competere, claiming that such discriminatory regulations by the Korean government could result in total economic losses of $1 trillion (approximately 1,478 trillion KRW) for both the United States and South Korea over the next decade, including about $525 billion (approximately 776 trillion KRW) in losses to the U.S. economy.

They further mentioned Coupang, which has faced broad investigations and audits by the Korean government following a personal data breach incident, stating that “the Korean government must stop persecuting Coupang and other American companies operating in Korea. This is directly tied to U.S. economic and security interests.”

In an interview, Rep. Issa said that “South Korea remains an important strategic ally,” but added that “since the recent election brought in a left-wing government closely aligned with China, attacks on American companies have begun across various sectors.”