No THAAD! Lotte out of China!” This is what was written on the banner held by a group of protesters in front of a Lotte-invested supermarket in the city of Qidong, East China’s Jiangsu province, on Thursday. Such protests were organised after the Republic of Korea conglomerate Lotte Group accepted a plot of land in exchange for its Skyhill Golf Course in Seongju where the US’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system will be deployed, a move which China is strongly opposed to because it will destabilise the strategic balance in East Asia in favor of the United States.