Warnings that Chinese capital is encroaching on Jeju Island have now come from Europe. After Taiwanese media raised the issue, German press has taken on the "Sinicization" of Jeju head-on, putting the structural problems created by the real estate investment immigration program back under international scrutiny.
German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung ran an article on the 11th titled "An Island at Risk of Suffocating," which focused on how Chinese capital is taking over Jeju, the paper said. The daily reported that on Jeju, "everything from restaurant menus to duty-free shop advertising to conversations heard on the street is in Chinese," describing how the island has changed since the influx of Chinese money.
The German coverage is not the first time Jeju has drawn foreign media attention. In June last year, Taiwanese daily Liberty Times published an article titled "Jeju a Chinese Island? South Korea Left Cleaning Up," reporting that "land purchases continue on Jeju under the pretext of building theme parks, casinos, high-rise hotels and apartments." It said Chinese nationals owned about 9.81 million square meters of land on Jeju as of the end of 2019, an area equal to 43.5% of all foreign-owned land on the island.
Official data show Jeju has the highest share of foreign-owned land of any region in the country. According to National Assembly data, Chinese nationals account for about 40% of the 181,391 land parcels held by foreigners nationwide. Foreigners hold about 1.18% of Jeju's total area of 1.85 billion square meters, the highest ratio among the country's provinces and metropolitan cities.
Of the 1.26 trillion won ($910 million) in investment that flowed into Jeju between the 2010 introduction of the real estate investment immigration program and 2022, 98% was Chinese capital. Of the 683 people who obtained permanent residency, known as an F-5 visa, through the program, an estimated 90% were also Chinese nationals. Foreigners have purchased 1,955 Jeju properties through the program.
Jeju authorities have distanced themselves from the term "Chinese island." A provincial official has said the 9.81 million square meters of Chinese-owned land amounts to just 0.5% of Jeju's total area, calling the characterization exaggerated. The government also moved to curb indiscriminate inflows in May 2023, raising the minimum investment threshold for the immigration program to 1 billion won from 500 million won.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, however, took issue with qualitative changes rather than the numbers. The paper noted that some of the properties financed with Chinese capital sit immediately adjacent to military control zones on Jeju, and pointed to the island's geopolitical position as a chokepoint on shipping lanes linking China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. It said the matter needs to be examined as a security issue, not simply an economic one. The paper also noted that profits earned by Chinese companies are not flowing into the local economy.
