South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group will shut all of its department stores in China, to complete its withdrawal from the communist nation’s retail market, according to a July 30 report by South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.
Business fell dramatically, beginning in 2017, after the South Korean government decided to host the United States’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile defense system. The move greatly offended Beijing, which claimed that the defense system could be used by American forces to spy into Chinese airspace.
