The Midnight Attack on the “Xi Jinping” Restaurant

A Chinese restaurant in Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, that has operated since 2018 under the name "Xi Jinping" was broken into and trashed overnight.

The Bundang Police Station says four Chinese men in their 20s to 40s — including a man in his 40s identified as "A" — broke in at around 2:40 a.m. Thursday, Sept 24, the first day of the Chuseok holiday, and sprayed red and black lacquer and paint across walls, furniture and other surfaces throughout the restaurant.

They also completely covered the restaurant's exterior sign reading "Xi Jinping" with paint, spent about an hour inside, filmed the act on their phones, and sprayed a substance believed to be pesticide on food ingredients in the kitchen.

The suspects:

All four are Chinese nationals. Police believe they entered on C-3-2 tourist visas — one about a month before the attack, the other three about a week before.

After the attack they took a taxi to a motel in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, then fled the same day through Incheon Airport to Yantai, Shanghai and other cities in China.

Police identified them on Sunday after the owner reported the break-in around 8:30 a.m. and are now seeking arrest warrants and Interpol red notices. Police say the choice of a closed holiday and the filming suggests it was organized or premeditated, and appears to have been motivated by dissatisfaction with the restaurant's name.

Why the name and what now:

The owner told Yonhap they chose the name to mean "we want to be the best in Chinese cuisine, since Xi Jinping is China's top leader" and said there was no intent to mock. The district office accepted the business registration with no problem, so they kept it.

The restaurant had been an internet meme in Korea for years — dubbed "the Chinese restaurant Chinese people cannot go to" alongside places named "Tiananmen" and "Mao".

Complaints spiked starting July-August 2025 ahead of the APEC summit in Gyeongju where Xi was expected to visit. The owner said he got 30-40 calls, some offering money to change the name. There was a smaller paint attack on the sign around 2 a.m. July 21 that police never solved.

There was also an anonymous complaint to the Korea Intellectual Property Office in April alleging unfair competition for using Xi's name on the restaurant and on items like "Xi Jinping special rice" — that case was investigated and closed with no violation.

Damage is estimated at about 15 million won (∼$11,000) just for fixtures and two computers, not counting lost business from being closed over Chuseok.

The owner has now filed to rebrand, saying "I was very afraid that even with the suspects out of the country, someone else could break in". The restaurant remained closed with police tape as of Monday and plans to reopen under a new name this week.