The collusion between politics and business has been criticized. South Korea wants to use the knife against the privileges of the chaebol.

　　In recent years, Korean society is increasingly dissatisfied with the phenomenon of economic polarization, collusion between government and business, and unfair market, and there are growing doubts about several major chaebol family businesses that account for a considerable proportion of the Korean economy.

　　During the election campaign, President Moon Jae in promised to break the privileges of the chaebol, and soon after taking office, he appointed the famous "chaebol sniper" Jin Xiangjiu as the chairman of the Fair Trade Commission. The public will wait and see the final result of this action to rectify the chaebol.

　　Collusion between government and business jeopardizes market fairness.

　　With the frequent exposure of negative news by South Korean chaebol groups, incidents such as internal struggles and bullying of chaebol family members have occurred from time to time, and people and the media have become increasingly disgusted, and the phenomenon that chaebol enterprises hinder market fairness has also caused more reflection.

　　In the eyes of Korean nationals, a chaebol is like a huge "empire", its tentacles often spread to all walks of life, and the core executive positions are also inherited among family members. In addition, according to a survey in March this year, among the 310 family members of the top ten chaebol in South Korea, 94 people are married in business, accounting for 30.3%; 60 people married in politics and business, accounting for 19.4%.

　　According to the standards set by the Korea Fair Trade Commission, there are 45 chaebol enterprises in Korea, of which the assets of the top 10 chaebol enterprises account for more than 27% of the national total.

　　Last year, South Korea exposed park geun-hye’s "cronies in politics" scandal, and the details of the alleged trading of power and money by chaebol such as Samsung Group were constantly exposed. Samsung Group spans nearly 60 industries, including electronics, shipbuilding, construction, insurance, theme parks, advertising and film production, and its influence extends not only to the economic level, but also to the political and social levels.

　　On August 25th this year, Lee Jae-yong, the vice president of Samsung Electronics and the actual controller of the group, was convicted of bribery, misappropriation of public funds, illegal transfer of assets, concealment of criminal income and perjury, and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in the first instance. The court found that in order to get the help of then President park geun-hye in the process of inheriting the management right of Samsung Group, Lee Jae-yong paid bribes in the name of sponsoring the equestrian training of Zheng, the daughter of park geun-hye’s "confidant" Cui Shunshi.

　　According to the prosecution, Lee Jae-yong promised and actually bribed South Cui Shunshi a total of 43.3 billion won (about 250 million yuan) in exchange for the policy convenience given by the park geun-hye government in the merger of two subsidiaries of Samsung Group in 2015, which helped Lee Jae-yong, as the vice president of Samsung Electronics, strengthen his control over the whole Samsung Group.

　　"The essence of this case is the collusion between the government and the chaebol," said Jin Zhendong, the presiding judge, when reading the verdict. "This kind of collusion not only existed in the past, but still exists in the real society, causing irreparable trauma to the people of the whole country."

　　It is against this background that the call for reforming the chaebol is getting louder and louder, and with the Moon Jae in administration coming to power in May, the time seems to have arrived.

　　People who have received much attention are looking forward to rectification.

　　As early as the beginning of the presidential election in January this year, "rectifying the chaebol" became one of the key topics of concern for Korean voters. In order to conform to the people’s voice, the main popular presidential candidates vowed to reform the operation mode of the major chaebol even before they officially announced their candidacy for the presidency.

　　For example, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon returned to Seoul on January 12th and was interpreted by the outside world as preparing to run for the presidency of South Korea. Before the plane landed, he told the accompanying reporter of South Korea’s Central Daily News: "I think reform (chaebol) is imperative. The chaebol controls everything, so that small and medium-sized enterprises can’t survive at all. The influence of the chaebol is too great, causing conflicts between classes. "

　　In Ban Ki-moon’s view, the chaebol economy intensifies social injustice, for example, "even if the sub-contractors complete the same work (with the chaebol enterprises), they can only get 60% of the benefits. A series of problems have arisen from this. "

　　At that time, Moon Jae in, who led the polls and was finally elected president, made an earlier statement, revealing the intention of rectifying the chaebol enterprises and breaking the privileges of the chaebol. On January 10th, he promised to implement a series of chaebol reform measures, focusing on the top ten chaebols. Among them, the four most eye-catching chaebol companies are Samsung, Hyundai, SK Group and LG Group.

　　Moon Jae in’s ideas at that time included many "bold ideas". For example, a director of a chaebol enterprise should be elected by ordinary employees. At that time, Li Zaiming, the "dark horse" of the presidential campaign and the mayor of Chengnan City, put forward a more radical idea, saying that "the chaebol enterprises must be separated from the chaebol families", and he even shouted the slogan of "dissolving the chaebol".

　　Liu Chenglian, the orthodox presidential candidate, is an economist. In his view, the Korean economy is "not a free market economy at all", but a "jungle economy dominated by several chaebol". Therefore, "we need to carry out the reform of the chaebol as radically as possible under the constitutional framework".

　　In this social atmosphere, it is not surprising that the first ministerial official nominated by Moon Jae in after he became president in May was the chairman of the Fair Trade Commission. The Fair Trade Commission is a ministerial-level enterprise regulatory body, focusing on unfair market behaviors such as price manipulation.

　　Kim Sang-jiu, the new chairman of the Fair Trade Commission nominated by Moon Jae in, is 55 years old. He used to be a professor of economics at Seoul National University. He is a famous "chaebol reformist" in South Korea and has always advocated the establishment of a transparent and fair market system. According to South Korea’s "Central Daily News", Kim Sang-jiu was familiar with the inside story of the big consortium and provided a lot of information about Samsung Group during the prosecution’s investigation of the "pro-government" case.

　　The new official issued an "ultimatum" when he took office

　　Since Jin Xiangjiu took charge of the Fair Trade Commission on May 17th, it is widely expected that the Moon Jae in government will strengthen the supervision of chaebol enterprises.

　　Sure enough, shortly after Jin Xiangjiu took office, it was convenient for him to interview kwon oh-hyun, vice president of Samsung Electronics, Zheng Zhenxing, president of Hyundai Motor, and senior executives of LG Group and SK Group on June 23, and talk to them about various ideas about chaebol reform. The Korean media noted that this is the first time since 2004 that the Chairman of the Fair Trade Commission has interviewed representatives of the four major chaebol enterprises.

　　Jin Xiangjiu mentioned in this interview: "The economic environment is changing rapidly, and the attitude of the people towards chaebol enterprises has also changed significantly. In my opinion, chaebol enterprises failed to meet market expectations. Some chaebol enterprises have become global enterprises, but the life of most citizens has become more and more difficult, which shows that there is a big problem that cannot be ignored. "

　　Jin Xiangjiu said: "I am not saying that all these problems are to be blamed on the chaebol enterprises. But I clearly believe that it is necessary for chaebol enterprises to reflect on the past history. "

　　The interview was facilitated by the Korea Federation of Industry and Commerce. In a statement, the Federation said: "This is a good opportunity to exchange potential economic countermeasures, and we will also strive to find concrete measures to improve the fair trading market environment."

　　On September 1, Jin Xiangjiu issued an "ultimatum" to the chaebol enterprises, ordering the major chaebols to reform the corporate governance structure before December this year, otherwise the government will "do it yourself".

　　The chaebol groups named by Jin Xiangjiu on the same day include Samsung and Hyundai. He has repeatedly said that Samsung Group should reduce cross-shareholding and increase governance transparency. In his view, if Hyundai Group does not step up rectification, it will follow the footsteps of Samsung Group. It is reported that Hyundai Group’s recent poor performance has suffered setbacks in Korean, American, China and other markets.

　　Jin Xiangjiu introduced that the Fair Trade Commission has conducted a preliminary investigation on the chaos such as the abuse of power by the management of the chaebol group, and found that the chaebol group with "as many as two digits" violated regulations, and will conduct a more in-depth investigation next. If the major chaebol enterprises do not implement positive reforms before December this year, the Fair Trade Commission will take strong measures such as promoting the revision of the company law.

　　Looking back at the chaos, be wary of rushing.

　　This is not the first time that Korean society has called for the reform of the chaebol.

　　According to the South Korean media, the first strong call to urge the reform of chaebol was after the 1997 financial crisis. Many people realize angrily that the chaebol enterprises have kept an ambiguous close relationship with government departments and banks, and they have been out of supervision for a long time, so that many loan funds are wasted on the inefficient projects of the chaebol enterprises, while the projects with more potential and innovative value of small and medium-sized enterprises are stifled because they have no access to loans. At the height of the financial crisis, more than 3,500 companies in South Korea filed for bankruptcy every month.

　　In that financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund rescued South Korea, and the South Korean authorities subsequently introduced a series of regulatory measures to rectify some chaos in the financial sector, such as prohibiting the subsidiaries of chaebol from guaranteeing each other when applying for loans.

　　Cross-holding is a prominent feature of chaebol enterprises. According to the statistics of the Fair Trade Commission, at the peak of 1999, the cross-holding ratio of Korean chaebol enterprises reached 43%. After the Korean government gradually introduced regulatory measures in recent years, this proportion has declined.

　　Due to the lack of transparency in the internal governance of chaebol enterprises, there is also a strange phenomenon called "Korean discount" in the Korean stock market, that is, the share prices of chaebol-related enterprises will be lower than those of similar enterprises in overseas stock markets. Analysts said that this highlights investors’ concerns about corruption such as illegal operations and collusion between government and business in South Korean chaebol enterprises.

　　Earlier this year, Cheongwadae said in a statement that Jin Xiangjiu became the first ministerial official nominated by the new President Moon Jae in, which showed that it was almost impossible to survive the economic crisis under the premise of unfair market environment. The new government will be committed to creating a fair market environment to help the economy recover.

　　According to Jin Xiangjiu’s idea, the reform of chaebol should not be rushed, and the concerns of all parties should be fully considered. He hopes that the chaebol enterprises can carry out reforms spontaneously in order to make a smooth transition. (Special correspondent of this newspaper Yang Shuyi)