Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Monday visited the company's chip factory in China to assess the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic on the overseas plant.

Samsung said on Monday that Lee visited the chip plant in Xian and encouraged workers and executives there. Lee also discussed the effects of the prolonged pandemic and future responses. 

Lee, the de facto leader of South Korea's top conglomerate, reportedly said that the company should not be held back by the past and must not be satisfied with the present, stressing "preemptive" efforts to prepare for forthcoming changes in order to create new growth engines.

The Xian plant is Samsung's only overseas memory chip factory, with a 15 billion-dollar investment in the plant underway. The tech giant is aiming to become the largest systems chip manufacturer in the world by 2030.