Korea's casino business has recently found a new growth story: some media outlets have openly argued that the return of Chinese tourists should be treated as the "core growth engine" of the gambling industry, with Chinese visitors cultivated as the primary clientele. On August 3, Tang Liang, counselor in charge of consular and overseas-Chinese affairs at the Chinese Embassy in South Korea, published a signed article in The Korea Times titled "Do Not Do Unto Others What You Do Not Want Done to Yourself" — and took that pitch head-on.
Korean casinos' gambling promotion aimed at foreigners is being openly pitched as an "engine of economic growth" — the embassy's article dismantles that packaging in four layers: it is morally indefensible (do not do unto others), legally incoherent (Korea itself bans its own citizens from gambling), a betrayal of the consensus reached during the two countries' reciprocal presidential visits, and practically a lose-lose of tragedy and national image. Treating tourists as "a clientele to be harvested" rather than as "guests" is the true bullseye of this rebuttal.
I. The Double Irony of Morality and Law
The article's argument begins with Confucius's old maxim but lands on very concrete realities. Korean law strictly restricts its own citizens' participation in gambling, expressly banning Korean nationals from entering the overwhelming majority of casinos — which in itself shows that Korea is well aware of gambling's harms. Meanwhile, Chinese law maintains "zero tolerance" for gambling, and Chinese citizens who gamble overseas are equally breaking the law. A country that bars its own people from casinos while turning its marketing guns on another country's tourists carries an inborn irony: what you do not want for yourself, you are doing unto others.
II. Bilateral Relations: The Heaviest Layer
The dimension of bilateral relations is the heaviest layer of this rebuttal. At the end of last year and the beginning of this one, the Chinese and Korean presidents successfully exchanged visits and reached important consensus on carrying out healthy and beneficial people-to-people exchanges; the law-enforcement authorities of the two countries have maintained communication and cooperation in combating cross-border gambling. The embassy's article puts it bluntly: the gambling industry clearly does not belong to "healthy and beneficial people-to-people exchange," and openly soliciting Chinese tourists as the primary target of casino promotion "does a hundred harms and not a single good to bilateral people-to-people exchange."
III. The Concrete Costs
The article does not stop at diplomatic rhetoric but offers a ledger of concrete costs. In recent years, negative incidents involving Chinese citizens at Korean casinos have occurred from time to time, and there have even been cases of Chinese students taking their own lives over massive gambling debts — tragedies that not only harm the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens but also seriously damage the order of Korea's tourism market and Korea's own international image. The short-term revenue harvested through gambling promotion is paid for with long-term credibility in the tourist market: harvesting the interests of another country's tourists through gambling is "not only a harmful, short-sighted course of action, but will also corrode the friendly sentiments between the peoples of the two countries."
IV. A Delicate Position on the Timeline
Placed back on the timeline of China–South Korea relations, this rebuttal appears at a delicate position: visa facilitation is promoting people-to-people exchange, and both countries are stimulating their economies by boosting tourism — at such a moment, treating Chinese tourists as the "core growth engine" of casinos amounts to channeling the dividends of people-to-people exchange into a gray industry. The embassy's choice of tone is equally noteworthy: this is not a protest but reasoned argument; not a warning of the kind that severs relations, but a call on the Korean side to "earnestly fulfill its supervisory responsibilities over tourism agencies and strictly regulate casino operations." The target of criticism is precisely confined to "some media" and casino operators — leaving the Korean regulators a step to descend, and a door open for subsequent law-enforcement cooperation.
This rebuttal chose to be published in The Korea Times, a Korean English-language newspaper — speaking of "do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself" in a language readable by both the Korean public and Western readers. The rebuttal is aimed at Korean public opinion, but the audience it transmits to is far more than Korean public opinion alone.
Tang Liang, counselor at the Chinese Embassy in South Korea, published a signed article in The Korea Times titled "Do Not Do Unto Others What You Do Not Want Done to Yourself": rebutting Korean media claims that Chinese tourists are the core growth engine of Korean casinos; four layers of argument (morality: Confucius's "do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself"; law: Korea bans its own nationals from casinos, and China holds zero tolerance for gambling, with gambling overseas equally illegal; bilateral: the consensus of the reciprocal visits by the Chinese and Korean presidents, and gambling's exclusion from healthy and beneficial people-to-people exchange; consequences: Chinese students taking their own lives over gambling debts, and damage to Korea's tourism order and national image); calling on the Korean side to fulfill supervisory responsibility, regulate casino operations, and eliminate gambling promotion aimed at Chinese tourists.