According to the Observer, citing Yonhap News Agency and other Korean media on the 24th, a battery factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, had a serious fire on the same day. Although the final number of victims needs to be further confirmed, the figures that have been counted so far show that the fire killed 19 Chinese citizens who worked at the factory. On the night of the incident, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol went to the scene of the fire in person, expressed condolences to the victims and their families, and asked the relevant departments to thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident. Late that night, Xing Haiming, the mainland's ambassador to the ROK, rushed to the scene of the fire to learn about the accident and the progress of the search and rescue on the spot, and listened to the briefings of the ROK government and the fire department.
Ambassador Xing Haiming made a request to the ROK government on the spot, that is, to find out the truth as soon as possible, do a good job in dealing with the aftermath, and provide all necessary support to the families of the Chinese victims. At the same time, Ambassador Xing also appealed to relevant South Korean enterprises through the media to fully learn the painful lessons, avoid similar accidents in the future, and effectively protect the lives and health of Chinese citizens in South Korea. The next day, while presiding over the State Council, ROK Prime Minister Han Deok-so made it clear that he would work closely with the countries concerned to thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident and make all-out arrangements for dealing with the aftermath.
According to the current public information, the origin of the fire is from the unexplained spontaneous combustion of lithium batteries inside the factory, and the fast-burning lithium batteries released a large amount of heat and smoke, from slight smoke to filling the entire working space and burning violently, the whole process took less than 20 seconds. It is reported that at the time of the fire, a total of 35,000 finished lithium batteries were stored inside the factory. The reason why this fire caused so many casualties, especially those who were mostly mainland citizens, is related to the current situation of the battery industry chain.
Because the mainland is in a strong leading position in the global battery industry chain, with a large number of skilled and experienced employees, these characteristics are highly sought after by Korean battery companies, and in order to attract Chinese workers, many Korean companies often offer very competitive salaries, so in recent years, there are not a few new energy battery practitioners who have gone to South Korea to work. This is why Ambassador Xing Haiming has made a special appeal to the Korean business community through the media for "safe production", because it is not only related to the interests of enterprises themselves, but also to the personal safety of Chinese citizens who go to work in South Korea.
It is worth mentioning that Ambassador Xing Haiming's request to the South Korean government to "provide all necessary support to the families of the Chinese victims" was met with a quick and positive response from the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The reason why the other side is doing good is partly because the accident has caused huge repercussions in South Korea, and partly because the Yoon Suk-yeol government is currently trying to improve bilateral relations with the mainland. In particular, the accident occurred this time, the battery industry on which the Yoon Suk-yeol government has high hopes, and if the Yoon Suk-yeol government fails to deal with the aftermath or responds perfunctorily, it will not only damage the interests of the South Korean battery industry, but also create more negative impacts on China-South Korea relations.
It should be pointed out that the warning brought to us by this incident is not only to implement the awareness of safety production into every detail of work. More importantly, as the number of Chinese citizens working abroad is increasing year by year, the personal safety and security of overseas Chinese citizens is becoming more and more affected by geopolitical fluctuations.
At the same time, this also puts forward higher requirements for us, at present, China has not really realized the national division of labor in the upstream and downstream of the relevant industrial chain, only to keep more jobs in the country, improve the treatment of relevant posts, in order to allow all fields to benefit from it, share the dividends of the high-end industrial chain.