Without a trace

ملخص مفصل

The author is the chief editor of the JoongAng Ilbo. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong missed a crucial opportunity. U.S. President Joe Biden held a videoconference…

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong missed a crucial opportunity. U.S. President Joe Biden held a videoconference from the White House on chip manufacturing and the supply chain. He proclaimed semiconductor were part of U.S.’s “infrastructure” and investments were needed to address not just the immediate chip shortage but “once-in-a-generation” bet on the future of both the semiconductor and batteries business.

The virtual conference was hosted by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese. CEOs of 19 global IT, automaking and chipmaking companies, including Alphabet, Samsung Electronics and TSMC, were invited. With a wafer in his hand, Biden vowed to “step up our game” by making big investments to lead the world in the 21st century as in the past century. The absence of Lee was a national loss.

Four years ago, President-elect Donald Trump invited Lee to a tech summit at Trump Tower in New York. But Lee had to miss that too as he was banned from leaving the country due to his involvement in the abuse of power case against impeached president Park Geun-hye. At that time, 14 CEOs, including Tim Cook of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Eric Schmidt of Alphabet, and Elon Musk of Tesla attended the meeting. The shortlist was reportedly drawn up by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, a vocal supporter of Trump. Thiel is one of Lee’s global network connections.

Vice president-elect Mike Pence, nominee for Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus, Wilbur Ross, nominee for commerce secretary, plus Trump’s three children and son-in-law Jared Kushner were there. “Call my people or call me,” Trump told the CEOs, vowing to “make it a lot easier for you to trade across borders” if the companies make investments and jobs in America. If Lee — the sole non-American CEO to get an invite — had been there, he could have played a key role between Seoul and Washington.

The world is seeing another war on the economic front.

Korea is at the center…

مطلع المقال، مقتطف من Korea JoongAng Daily. لقراءة المقال كاملًا، افتحه على موقع الناشر.