South Korean Police Raids a Chinese Restaurant on Suspicion of Being a Secret CCP Police Station

Wang Haijun, boss of the Oriental Pearl restaurant in Seoul, reads a statement outside the restaurant on Dec. 29, 2022. His restaurant has been accused of being the base of the Chinese Communist Party’s overseas secret police station. Kim Myung-kuk / The Epoch Times

South Korean police investigated a Chinese restaurant in Seoul for operating as a suspected secret Chinese Communist Party (CCP) police station that was involved in forcibly repatriating Chinese dissidents. The owner also allegedly played other key roles in overseas associations linked to the CCP.

China’s covertly deployed overseas police stations have been increasingly exposed in many countries, promoting alarm. Public opinion suggests that the South Korean government urgently needs to revise its “espionage law” to cope with national security threats posed by communist China.

On Feb. 22, Seoul Police conducted a mandatory investigation of Wang Haijun, 46, the owner of the Oriental Pearl Chinese restaurant in Seoul.

On the same day, police inspected Mr. Wang at Customs upon his arrival in South Korea and confiscated his personal belongings. Police also searched Mr. Wang’s home in Incheon and his media company. Mr. Wang and his associates have been banned from leaving the country, according to local Korean media.

This is the first mandatory investigation since late 2022 when police detected that Beijing had set up a secret police station in South Korea.

In late 2022, a report by Spain-based Safeguard Defenders revealed that the Chinese communist regime has been covertly operating secret police stations in several countries. The report alleged that the Nantong Public Security Bureau opened such a secret Chinese police station in South Korea as well as many other countries and that “representatives of overseas Chinese and overseas students have been hired in the United States, Australia, South Korea and other places as overseas liaison officers to cooperate with domestic officers both internally and externally.”

The South Korean police raid on a CCP representative amounted to “a deterrent and warning signal to Beijing,” Li Yuanhua, a China affair expert and former associate professor at China’s Capital Normal University, told The Epoch Times.

Repatriation of Chinese Dissidents

An investigation by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) last year revealed that the Chinese restaurant Oriental Pearl, which Mr. Wang has operated since 2018, is suspected to have been operating as a secret CCP police point. The investigation found that Mr. Wang also helped the Chinese Consulate to repatriate local anti-communist Chinese back to China.

Early last month, the Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office indicted Mr. Wang and his wife on suspicion of violating the Food Sanitation Law, among other charges.

During the Feb. 22 raid, police also looked into capital flows of Mr. Wang’s company and related businesses. Police found that his company continued to operate despite losses and thus suspected an inflow of external funds with the CCP in the background.

Journalists from China's official news agency Xinhua report directly from the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on March 6, 2001. Goh Chai Hin /AFP via Getty Images

Police are also concerned about HG Culture Media, a media company run by Mr. Wang, which has an intimate tie with the Chinese official media. In July 2015, HG Culture Media was designated the channel for the CCP’s mouthpiece, Xinhua News Agency, and its exclusive agent in South Korea.

A Tool for CCP Political Influence

In addition to titles as CEO of the restaurant and HG Culture Media, Mr. Wang held a leading position in both the Korea-China Federation for the Promotion of Peace and Unification and the Federation of Overseas Chinese Association in Korea. The two federations are affiliates of the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU), a secret service organization under the control of the intelligence agency the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the CCP.

The UFWD has long been vigorously infiltrating Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Western countries to influence political and economic activities there. Its tactics comprise luring, enticing, intimidating, and threatening elites, tycoons, and celebrities at home and abroad to serve the CCP.

In October 2020, the U.S. Department of State defined the UFWD-controlled NACPU as a foreign agent under the U.S. Foreign Missions Act. The act requires agents representing foreign interests or engaging in political roles to disclose information about their relationships with foreign governments, related activities, and sources of funding.

CCP’s Potential Interference in South Korean Election

Given Beijing’s transnational influence and propaganda scheme, South Korea’s upcoming parliamentary election would be unavoidably exposed to communist intervention.

Bruce Klingner, an expert on North Korea at the Heritage Foundation, a U.S. think tank, recently published a report indicating that South Korea’s electoral, security, and legal systems are vulnerable to the CCP’s intelligence efforts.

“Beijing would see great benefit to covertly influencing South Korean public opinion in the run-up to the April 2024 National Assembly and 2027 presidential elections in favor of progressive candidates whose policies more closely align with Chinese objectives.”

Mr. Klingner suggested that South Korea shut down Confucius institutes and Chinese secret police stations, which have been used to disseminate false intelligence and influence public opinion and policies in South Korea.

“South Korea should disband all Chinese government–funded organizations that spread Chinese propaganda and disinformation, curtail academic freedom, constrain intellectual debate, and engage in illicit law enforcement and coercive actions against Chinese nationals in South Korea,” he said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during the 104th Independence Movement Day ceremony in Seoul, on March 1, 2023. Jung Yeon-Je - Pool/Getty Images

The government of President Yoon Suk-Yeol remains highly alert to the CCP’s manipulation of South Korea’s parliamentary elections.

Last November, NIS stated that two Chinese companies are suspected of operating 38 fake websites posing as South Korean media outlets. According to the security service, those websites had been spreading pro-China and anti-U.S. content to manipulate public opinion in South Korea maliciously.

Espionage Act bill

South Korea faces obstacles in applying the law in Mr. Wang’s case. The current criminal law defines espionage as “the act of divulging military secrets for the benefit of the enemy.” According to the Supreme Court’s case law, only North Korea is an “enemy state.” There is no appropriate basis for penalizing other countries’ espionage activities and collecting state secrets other than military secrets.

The bill’s centerpiece is the expansion of penalties for espionage and the main body. South Korean lawmakers have been pushing for amendments to the Espionage Act since 2021 to rectify the shortcomings of the current criminal law.

In 2023, members of the ruling National Power Party (NPP) introduced a bill on foreign agent registration in the National Assembly, which is to end its term. The new National Assembly will be elected in April.

Han Min-ho, a former South Korean government official and founder and president of the Citizens for Unveiling Confucius Institutes (CUCI), told The Epoch Times on Feb. 29 that the espionage law amendment was blocked by the Democratic Party, the largest pro-Communist opposition party, which holds a majority of seats in the Congress.

He emphasized that to hinder the CCP’s interference and violence in internal affairs and the sovereignty of South Korea, the most important task for the new National Assembly “should be to pass the Espionage Act bill, which would expand the penalties for espionage from only North Korea to more hostile countries.”

Kane Zhang contributed to this article.