Debate on foreigners' voting rights rekindled following Chinese envoy's remarks

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Ruling party lawmaker seeks to take away Chinese residents' suffrage

By Lee Hyo-jin

Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party are calling to strip permanent foreign residents of voting rights for local elections, citing concerns of possible interference in domestic politics by the immigrant electorate.

The move, which would target Chinese residents, who make up the majority of eligible immigrant voters in Korea, comes after Chinese Ambassador to Seoul Xing Haiming's controversial remarks on Korea's foreign policy.

During a dinner with main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Lee Jae-myung last Thursday, Xing outwardly criticized the Korean government for pivoting excessively toward the United States, warning that it would come at the cost of damaging relations with China.

His remarks provoked strong criticisms from the ruling party and the government. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the envoy's remarks as “irrational and provocative” rhetoric, which may be perceived as an attempt to interfere in Korea's internal affairs.

Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), who joined in the criticism, said the voting rights granted to Chinese nationals with permanent residency should be taken away, claiming that the current voting system could be abused as a means for the Chinese government to interfere in Korea's domestic politics.

Following the revision to the Public Official Election Act in August 2005, foreign nationals who have resided in Korea for three or more years after obtaining permanent residency are given the right to vote in local elections for positions such as governors and mayors.

By doing so, Korea became one of the few countries outside of the European Union and the Commonwealth of Nations to guarantee non-citizens the right to vote.

Foreign nationals, however, are not allowed to vote in elections to choose the president or National Assembly members.

As the nation's foreign electorate continues to grow, a record-high 126,000 foreign residents were eligible to vote in the local elections on June 1, 2022. Of them, nearly 100,000 were Chinese nationals, making up 80 percent of the total.

“The remarks by Ambassador Xing are a clear case of interference in domestic politics. In fact, China currently has a feasible way to intervene in Korea's domestic affairs,” Rep. Kweon wrote on Facebook.

“Some 100,000 Chinese living in Korea have the right to vote in local elections, while Koreans living in China do not enjoy voting rights.”

In order to address the unfair situation, Kweon said that he proposed a revision bill last December to the Public Official Election Act, aimed at limiting voting rights only to foreign residents from countries that offer the same rights to Korean nationals living there, based on the principle of reciprocity.

The Korea Times contacted the Chinese Embassy in Seoul multiple times for comment regarding Rep. Kweon's proposal, but no one was available to respond.

This is not the first time policymakers have hinted at depriving non-Korean citizens of the right to vote.

Last December, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon floated the idea of “revising” the voting system, saying that “giving foreigners the right to vote without considering the principle of reciprocity may distort the will of the people.”

However, migrants' rights groups expressed opposition to Han's idea. They viewed that foreign voters, who accounted for a mere 0.25 percent of the total voters in local elections in 2018, do not have the power to “distort the will of the public.”