Protesters demanding a halt to the ballot count gather outside the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in Seoul's Songpa-gu on June 5, as vote-counting proceeds at the second polling station in Jamsil 7-dong — the site of a three-day standoff — amid allegations of election fraud. [Yonhap]
Protesters demanding a halt to the ballot count gather outside the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in Seoul's Songpa-gu on June 5, as vote-counting proceeds at the second polling station in Jamsil 7-dong — the site of a three-day standoff — amid allegations of election fraud. [Yonhap]

Some demonstrators at the Jamsil protest site — where crowds have gathered to demand a re-election over ballot shortages during the June 3 local elections — have been targeting police officers with accusations that they are Chinese agents. Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok, who visited the scene, criticized the behavior as the work of "unhinged people playing 'Hwajangjo.'"

Lee wrote on social media Sunday that "the most bewildering thing at the protest site on Saturday was the large number of people who suspected the officers on duty of being Chinese public security agents and were asking me to get to the bottom of it."

He said demonstrators were "fixated on turning perfectly ordinary people into Chinese nationals," citing claims such as: "Isn't long hair a sign of a Chinese agent — their grooming rules are stricter?" and "If he won't give his rank and name, isn't he an agent — even though regulations don't require it?" Lee added that it was "a black comedy in itself" that a person seen in a video harassing an officer he had labeled a Chinese agent had previously been reported by broadcasters as a "public safety hero."

"The fun of turning a diligent officer into a Chinese national, of branding Lee Jun-seok's mother as Chinese — once the rally loses momentum, any prospect of structural reform at the National Election Commission becomes a distant dream," he said. He urged demonstrators to "reject the 'Hwajangjo' game — a derogatory portmanteau of 'Huaqiao,' 'Jjangkkae' and 'Joseonjok,' used as a slur against ethnic Chinese — that is taking root among the unhinged, whether you are anti-China, anti-Japan, or whatever you please."

A video Lee posted alongside his message showed a woman following a police officer deployed at the protest site and repeatedly asking, "Are you really a South Korean police officer? Why do you talk like that?"

Even after the officer asked her to stop filming, the woman raised her voice and continued recording, saying, "Your speech sounds strange. You don't seem like a South Korean officer. Listen to the way he talks." Bystanders joined in, shouting, "What country are you from?" and "Are you Chinese?" During the confrontation, the woman read the officer's name badge aloud, publicly exposing his identity.

The officer, however, turned out to be the same person celebrated by media as a "public safety hero" two years ago, after he spotted a fire while off duty and returning home with his family, entered the building and evacuated residents, preventing further casualties.

Demonstrators chant slogans outside the second polling station in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul on June 4, opposing the removal of ballot boxes. Voting at the site had been extended until 10 p.m. the previous day after ballot shortages disrupted the ninth nationwide local elections and National Assembly by-elections. [Yonhap]
Demonstrators chant slogans outside the second polling station in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul on June 4, opposing the removal of ballot boxes. Voting at the site had been extended until 10 p.m. the previous day after ballot shortages disrupted the ninth nationwide local elections and National Assembly by-elections. [Yonhap]

The targeting of individuals as suspected Chinese nationals has extended beyond police officers to firefighters and journalists. On June 4, a Songpa-gu election management official was taken to hospital after complaining of low energy, and some demonstrators reportedly shouted at the paramedics who responded, demanding to know whether their belongings had been searched and asking if they were Chinese.

On June 5, outside the second polling station in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, a confrontation between some protesters and a female television journalist was broadcast live on YouTube, during which demonstrators claimed she was "100 percent Chinese."

Active-duty officers have pushed back against what some protesters are calling the "Chinese infiltration" theory, saying it has no basis in reality. A 10-year police veteran wrote on Blind, an anonymous workplace community app, that "riot unit members cannot possibly not know one another — we share a cramped police bus every day. The idea that a Chinese national whose face nobody recognizes could suddenly join the duty formation and pretend to be an officer is the stuff of fiction."

The officer added that "given the nature of the police organization, if something like that had actually happened, the issue would have been raised internally first," and that "there are no employees who would stay silent and keep such a secret."

Another officer said that "answering every single person who approaches with questions in the field is simply not feasible, and the more you engage, the more likely it is to turn into a dispute — so officers try as much as possible to avoid getting into conversations with protest participants."


bbo@heraldcorp.com