South Korean police officers targeted online by baseless anti-Chinese claims
- Published on June 17, 2026 at 11:20
- 4 min read
- By Hawon Jung, AFP South Korea
South Korea's far-right amplified well-worn anti-China narratives online after protests erupted in Seoul over ballot paper shortages during local elections in early June 2026. Videos of police officers deployed during the demonstrations spread widely in posts claiming they were part of a Chinese infiltration scheme, but officials told AFP they were all South Korean nationals -- as required by law. One of the officers and his partner have filed criminal complaints against some social media users for defamation.
"Breaking news from a patriot about a police officer believed to be Chinese," reads Korean-language text over a video shared June 6 on Instagram.
"So many Chinese came due to a no-visa entry rule -- do you think there won't be public security officers or gangsters among them?"
The clip, which accumulated thousands of interactions, shows people following a man in a police uniform in a parking lot as they shout "fake police".
Other videos of the officer, including one in which he is surrounded by a mob of young women and men holding signs saying "re-election", spread widely online in Korean and Chinese.
Some comments indicate users believed the claim, saying the police officer should be "caught and killed" or "stabbed to death".
A separate clip shared on South Korean and Taiwanese social media shows another man in a police uniform talking into a walkie-talkie on the street. A woman behind the camera shouts: "Are you really a South Korean police officer? What's wrong with your accent?"
Other posts sharing visuals of police officers highlight their names and hairstyles to speculate that they came from China.
The allegations surfaced as thousands of people held protests and demanded a rerun of local elections over ballot paper shortages that disrupted the polls on June 3 (archived link).
The poll was the first nationwide vote since President Lee Jae Myung took office following conservative Yoon Suk Yeol’s ouster over his brief martial law declaration in late 2024. Lee’s ruling, liberal Democratic Party won most races but failed to flip the key Seoul mayoral seat.
Tapping into political angst over visa changes for Chinese tour groups, as well as past disinformation from Yoon and his supporters about election interference, the recent polls were marred by baseless claims linking foreign nationals to fraud -- allegations that AFP has repeatedly debunked.
The latest narrative about Chinese agents posing as Seoul police officers is similarly baseless.
'Groundless false claims'
A Seoul police spokesman told AFP on June 12 that all six officers pictured in the visuals shared online are South Korean citizens and official members of the police force.
The spokesman noted the law prohibits anyone with foreign citizenship from serving as a police officer. The Police Officials Act also bars anyone with multiple nationalities from joining the force (archived links here and here).
The National Police Agency condemned accusations of Chinese infiltration as "groundless false claims" on its official Facebook account on June 8, sharing screenshots from the videos (archived link).
The police later took down the images due to privacy concerns over the accused officers and to prevent the images "from being misused", a spokesman told AFP.
Seoul police chief Park Jeong-Bo also called the claims "incomprehensible" in a press conference on June 15 (archived link).
'Hate for political gain'
One officer whose accent was targeted online is Cho Hyun-ryong, assistant inspector of Seoul's mobile police unit, a spokesman confirmed to AFP (archived link). In 2024, he received a good deed award for putting out a fire in a residential neighbourhood and evacuating people on his off-duty day (archived link).
Superintendent Kim Min-Q, who faced a storm of online mocking and threats after also being labelled as a Chinese asset at the protests, has filed criminal complaints against some social media users for defamation, according to a copy of the complaint shared with AFP on June 12.
"Officers of the police mobile unit are expected to be patient and unresponsive," Kim reportedly wrote on the police's internal message board on June 9. "But each of us is just an individual, and it is difficult to remain emotionally composed in the face of insults, provocations, and cursing that are poured at us on purpose" (archived link).
Kim's partner also filed criminal complaints against some users after being harassed online and called "mentally diseased" for defending Kim.
"I thought everything would be alright once we revealed facts. But it turned out that these people simply needed targets to label as 'Chinese' and pour their hate on -- regardless of facts," the partner, Kim Hyung-a, told AFP on June 12.
"I think these people should be held responsible for fanning this online hate for political gain or for fun, and online platforms like Meta have a responsibility to help hold them accountable for their actions".
AFP has previously debunked numerous claims in South Korea of purported Chinese infiltration.
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