During her visit to South Korea in an LG Group-run research and development complex, US treasury secretary Jannet Yellen expressed her views on China's trade practices, calling it out for disrupting the US economy and exercising "unwanted geopolitical leverage".

She called for the US and South Korea to fortify their trade relations and for other allies to follow the lead in what she calls "friend-shoring", a practice or a process implying selecting and excluding non-allies from trade relations in order to safeguard the US's geopolitical interests. 

During her speech, she said, "we cannot allow countries like China to use their market position in key raw materials, technologies, or products to disrupt our economy or exercise unwanted geopolitical leverage."

She added that Beijing "has directed significant resources to seek a dominant position in the manufacturing of certain advanced technologies, including semiconductors while employing a range of unfair trade practices to achieve this position."

Fueling anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea

Anti-China sentiment has been on the rise in South Korea since 2002. The Pew Global Attitude Project reported in 2002 that favorable views of China steadily declined from 66% to 48% in 2008, while unfavorable views of China rose from 31% in 2002 to 49% in 2008.

South Korea's change of mindset toward China was marked by Beijing's economic retaliation five years ago after Seoul installed the Thaad system. Seoul said the move was aimed at North Korea, but Beijing views Thaad's ultimate target as China itself.

Read more: China launches defensive anti-missile tests

Targeting Sino-Russian relations

Yellen's attack on China could be retraced to her previous speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington, where she criticized Beijing for preserving its trade relations with Russia amidst Western calls to isolate Moscow: "The world’s attitude towards China and its willingness to embrace further economic integration may well be affected by China’s reaction to our call for resolute action on Russia."

During her speech in Seoul, the US Treasury Secretary pushed for a price cap on Russian oil exports, saying Russia is now threatening to spark a global food crisis by blocking ports in Ukraine after its invasion of the country caused energy prices to surge.

The plan that Yellen is proposing is tied to a new set of financial sanctions that the EU, the UK, and the US are preparing to impose on Russia.