A growing number of U.S. policymakers and national security officials as sounding the alarm over South Korea’s increasing alliance with China, which may be posing a direct threat to American business interests in the tech sector and the broader U.S.-Korea trade relationship.
Within his first seven months in office, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has met personally with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping twice. Lee declared the Beijing summit “an important turning point” for relations between South Korea and China, and called Xi “a truly great, visionary leader.”
Xi reciprocated by invoking World War II to shared anti-Japanese sentiment telling Lee that “more than 80 years ago, China and South Korea made tremendous national sacrifices and won the victory against Japanese militarism.”
Lee and left-leaning politicians in Korea have also escalated discriminatory regulations against U.S. businesses operating in Korea, including Meta, Google, Coupang, Netflix, OpenAI and others, while loosening regulations on Chinese firms, allowing them to operate more freely.
While some analysts view the rapid diplomatic engagement as evidence of Beijing’s desire to deepen ties with Seoul ahead of U.S. leaders, Fred Fleitz, who served as chief of staff of the National Security Council under President Trump, says the developments fit a broader pattern.
“Beijing is systematically working to peel away American alliances by using economic leverage, political access and regulatory pressure. This is harmful both to South Korea and America, and U.S. officials should take notice,” he said.
Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) led 54 House Republicans in formally demanding that South Korea end “discriminatory and politically motivated actions” against American companies operating in Korea.
“I’m concerned by the growing trend of protectionist legislative measures targeting U.S. technology leaders,” Baumgartner wrote in a letter to Korea’s ambassador. “This raises serious rule-of-law concerns and risks crossing into disguised protectionism.”
Korea has been one of America’s most steadfast allies for 70 years, and the U.S. still maintains a force of 28,500 troops in the country to defend against North Korean aggression. But while Lee warms to Beijing, there are also signs that the U.S.-Korea alliance is cooling.
The two governments struck a sweeping trade and security deal last November, but implementation has stalled. The U.S. is linking the freeze to Seoul’s regulatory campaign targeting American companies, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio noting that it has negatively impacted negotiations around the U.S.-Korea trade deal.
“These are areas we’ve expressed, and I think have frankly impacted our ability to conclude a trade agreement with them, because of some of their behavior towards American companies,” Rubio said of South Korea’s actions toward tech companies, including Meta and Seattle-based Coupang.
While the U.S. Congressional Research Service has pointed out that Washington wants Seoul to play a more active role countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific, while President Lee has said there is “no need to unnecessarily antagonize” China.
Matt Mowers, a former State Department official who now runs the U.S.-Asia Fair Market Alliance, says that’s not happening.
“The founding premise of the U.S.-South Korea alliance was that we stand together against the North Korean threat and against Chinese expansionism. What we’re seeing under President Lee is a deliberate rewiring of South Korea’s strategic orientation — a tilt toward Beijing that goes well beyond economic pragmatism.”
The Chinese Communist Party Connection
President Lee’s tilt toward China has deep roots. In 2019, the Democratic Party of Korea’s (DPK) official think tank signed an agreement with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Party School, the CCP’s premier institution for training party officials. The Korea-China Parliamentary Federation includes over 100 Korean National Assembly members and is heavily dominated and chaired by President Lee’s DPK.
Lee’s election in June 2025 was powered in significant part by the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, which formally endorsed him. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), a more radical confederation with historical ties to left-wing political movements, opened a formal policy consultation channel with the DPK once Lee took power, pressing successfully for worker legislation, expanded union rights, and labor protections that have fallen disproportionately on American companies.
Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, writing in the Wall Street Journal with Lawrence Peck, described the pattern as part of a broader “hard left turn against America,” noting that Korean and Chinese companies have faced far lighter scrutiny for more serious data violations than the American firm under criminal-level investigation.
RSC Chairman Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) was even more blunt: “Discriminatory actions against American companies undermine our economic relationship and risk ceding ground to China.”
While experts still agree the US-South Korea alliance isn’t broken, the shifts remain a growing concern in Washington, with President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Michelle Steel pledging to monitor Seoul’s ongoing anti-American sentiment and mistreatment of US companies during her Senate confirmation hearing.
“Just as South Korean companies receive equal treatment in the U.S., American companies should enjoy the same market access in South Korea. If confirmed, I will ensure this issue is addressed,” she said.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.