According to recent reports by US media, a fire broke out at the Hwaseong battery factory in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, killing 22 people, 18 of whom were Chinese citizens, as well as a Laotian migrant worker and two South Koreans, one of whom could not be identified.
There were 102 workers in the factory before the accident, and after the incident, South Korean Prime Minister Han Deok-so and South Korean Minister of Interior and Security Lee Sang-min personally arrived at the scene, and President Yoon Suk-yeol also inspected the fire scene after the incident and demanded a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident.
Hwaseong battery factory fire
Although on August 19, 2022, South Korean media revealed that the South Korean job market is facing a labor shortage, with 170,000 jobs unfilled in the first quarter, and Chinese citizens continue to lose from South Korea, but the situation will improve in 2023.
There are indeed many Chinese citizens working in South Korea, after all, Chinese and Koreans work in the same factory at the same hourly wage, there is no discrimination, naturally there will be no loss of a large number of Chinese workers.
After the fire in South Korea, a Chinese citizen working in South Korea revealed to the media that there are many Chinese who go to South Korea to work.
The leaker came to South Korea to work in August 2023, with a monthly salary of 2.5 million won, equivalent to 12,600 yuan. If you encounter a lot of overtime, the monthly salary can reach more than 3 million won, equivalent to 15,700 yuan.
Migrant workers from South Korea
In addition, Chinese workers earn the same hourly wage as South Koreans, with a minimum hourly wage of 9,860 won, equivalent to 51 yuan.
The person in charge of the fire rescue mission of the Huacheng battery factory said that from the analysis of the on-site surveillance video, the fire occurred in the lithium battery workshop that day, and the lithium battery emitted a large amount of smoke and burned quickly before the fire, and it took only 15 seconds from the white smoke to fill the entire workshop, and the on-site employees tried to extinguish the fire with fire extinguishers but were unsuccessful.
According to the understanding, since the 80s of the 19th century, there have been "overseas Chinese" in South Korea, and most of them immigrated to South Korea from Shandong Province, a coastal city in eastern China, in the early days.
In 2009, more than half of South Korea's 1.1 million foreign nationals were from China, and from 2018 to 2020, the number of Chinese immigrants exceeded 800,000.
Chinese tourists arrive at Incheon Airport
Since Koreans are reluctant to work in physically demanding and low-paying jobs, working in factories has become the first choice for migrant workers.
However, in 2003, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea conducted a survey of overseas Chinese and found that 693 respondents had been discriminated against in employment, use of public and private services, and education.
In terms of employment, 77 per cent of overseas Chinese were discriminated against at the recruitment stage, and 79 per cent felt that they were severely discriminated against when they were promoted.
In terms of education, 46 percent of overseas Chinese have been discriminated against in primary and secondary schools or even high school, and 56 percent have been discriminated against when applying for universities.
Foreign tourists on the streets of Seoul, South Korea
In summary, Chinese and Chinese working in Korea do not have a good life, and in addition to manual labor, they are subject to various discrimination in their daily lives.
Although the monthly salary of working in South Korea may be higher than in China, is it really happy to leave your hometown and live in an environment where you don't understand the language and the citizens of the country where you live are full of discrimination? The answer is presumably no.
It is not difficult to understand why it is said that "the moon in foreign countries may not be round", if it is said that in the 19th century, due to China's underdevelopment and all aspects of the waste, after entering the 21st century, China, as a manufacturing power, is not weaker than neighboring countries.
Even if we compare it with South Korea, which is one of the most developed countries, Korea may not be stronger than China in terms of manufacturing plants, and there may be situations where there is no guarantee of safety even when working abroad.
(Text/Mr. Zhuge )