Face masks are latest casualties of China-South Korea row

Sa Sa International Holdings, Hong Kong’s biggest cosmetics seller, said the China-South Korea diplomatic row over a US-backed missile defence system had hampered sales of its Korean facial masks, once immensely popular among K-pop obsessed Chinese millennials.

“We therefore had to readjust our offerings by adding Taiwanese and Japanese masks,” said Simon Kwok Siu-ming, chairman of Sa Sa, in a post-earnings press conference.

It is the latest sign that China’s retaliation against Seoul’s planned deployment of THAAD missile shield has dealt a crushing blow even to retailers outside the territories involved in the dispute.

Since March, a coordinated boycott campaign of South Korean goods in China has already knocked tens of millions of dollars off the market value of Korea’s largest listed retail conglomerates, including Lotte Shopping and Laneige-owner AmorePacific Corp.

But it is the first time a Hong Kong retailer has signalled that it had felt the chill.

As Korean dramas and K-pop stars, from Descendants of the Sun to Jun Ji-hyun and Song Joong-ki, took Asia by storm, Chinese consumers also scrambled to snap up everything Korean, from Sulwhasoo face creams to Etude House lipsticks.

Sa Sa, which counts mainland tourists as a key customer group, was one of the biggest Asian beauty-product chains that has been riding on this wave since 2013, bringing in a wide range of Korean beauty products.