Germany's leading daily Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) recently covered the rapidly changing reality of Jeju Island after the massive influx of Chinese capital in an article titled 'Jeju Island Is at Risk of Being Suffocated by Chinese Capital,' ,,,SZ reported, "From restaurant menus to duty-free advertisements and conversations heard on the streets of Jeju City, everything is in Chinese," adding, "With excessive concentration of Chinese visitors and capital, local residents are feeling a serious burden on their daily lives." Taiwan's Free Times While major countries like Australia and New Zealand require about 4 billion won in funds, Korea has low entry barriers of about 500 million won for long-term stay (F-2) visas and 1.5 billion won for permanent residency (F-5) visas, resulting in a concentration where over 70% of settled foreigners are Chinese. Large-scale capital inflows have driven up local real estate prices, passing on to local residents with housing and living expenses, and moreover, Chinese companies are operating at large resorts, duty-free shops, casinos, As the huge profits earned from operations are not reinvested back into local communities and 'offshore outflow' intensifies with remittances to the home country, residents are being marginalized from economic losses. As the controversy grew, Jeju Island explained that Chinese-owned land accounts for only about 0.5% of Jeju's total area, so calling it a 'Chinese island' was an exaggeration, but SZ argued that the qualitative changes were more problematic than the numbers. Some of the real estate invested in by Chinese capital is adjacent to Jeju's military control zone , and Jeju is a geopolitical hub on the maritime route connecting Korea, China, Russia, and Japan. In response, experts suggest that the issue of Chinese capital inflow into Jeju should be addressed beyond a simple real estate issue, from a management perspective for national security and Northeast Asian risks.
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