Four Suspects Flee Korea After Attack on Xi Jinping-Named Restaurant
Four Chinese nationals vandalized a restaurant in Seongnam named after Chinese leader Xi Jinping and then left South Korea, police said Tuesday.
The attack took place around 2:40 a.m. on 24 September, according to the Korea Herald. Surveillance video shows four masked men entering the restaurant in Bundang-gu, Gyeonggi Province, in Seongnam south of Seoul, breaking furniture and spraying lacquer.
The owner said he picked the name because he wanted the best Chinese restaurant in South Korea, with no political message. The restaurant had run for eight years. Calls to change the name started only in the past year, the Chosun Daily reported, as cited by the BBC.
Pressure grew in August last year after reports that Xi would attend the APEC summit in South Korea, a major meeting of Pacific-region leaders. The owner said he got dozens of calls demanding a change, and people who said they did business in China offered large sums for a rebrand, he told the Chosun Daily. In April this year, a complaint was filed with South Korea's Ministry of Intellectual Property, the office that handles trademarks and names, over a dish called Xi Jinping Special Rice. The ministry closed the case after finding no problem.
Police described the suspects as Chinese men aged 20 to 40. Investigators believe they fled to Shanghai and Yantai in Shandong province after the attack. Police plan to seek arrest warrants and request Interpol red notices, which are international alerts asking police in other countries to locate and hold suspects while extradition, the legal process for transfer, is considered.
The owner put the damage at about 15 million won ($11,100; £8,400). The restaurant closed for five days and reopened Tuesday, as reported by Asia Economy. His team is now considering a new name.
The broader context here is law enforcement across borders, not only the broken furniture. South Korean police can issue domestic warrants quickly. Getting custody is harder, because an Interpol red notice does not force another country to arrest, and any return would depend on Chinese cooperation and legal channels between the two countries.
For diplomacy and domestic politics, the timing is important. An eight-year-old name drew complaints only after the summit announcement placed Xi's visit in the news. That order of events shows how symbols can gain weight before high-level visits, even when the owner denies any message. For officials in Seoul, the task is narrow but awkward: run a normal criminal case without raising tensions around a partner leader's name before multilateral talks.
