South Korea's richest tycoon Lee Kun-Hee returned on Wednesday as chairman of global giant Samsung Electronics, almost two years after stepping down under an ethics cloud. Lee came back less than three months after receiving a presidential pardon for tax evasion. The company said its needs his leadership "to take the upper hand in the global market amid the world economic crisis". During his 20 years as chairman, Samsung Electronics became the world's largest maker of computer memory chips and second biggest manufacturer of mobile phones. But Lee expressed uncertainty about the future, as Samsung seeks new growth engines in the face of increasing low-cost Chinese competition. "This is a time of real crisis. Global companies are crumbling. We don't know what will happen to Samsung either," a company statement quoted him as saying when he agreed to return at the request of its executives.