South Korea Tries to Curb Anti-China Protests Ahead of Xi Visit

On a recent weeknight, Lin Yung-pin was guiding a group of Taiwanese visitors around Myeongdong, a bustling tourist hot spot in Seoul that has also been the site of anti-China protests over the years. To ward off potential harassment, Mr. Lin said, some members of his groups wear badges or carry signs that identify them as being from Taiwan, not China.

Anti-China sentiment is not new in South Korea, but Seoul has seen a surge in demonstrations by far-right groups in recent weeks over the easing of visa rules for Chinese tourist groups. Demonstrators, in the hundreds, have carried signs saying “Korea for Koreans” and “Stop the Chinese Boats,” and some have chanted racial slurs, according to local news media.

South Korea’s government and law enforcement authorities are pushing to contain these protests, which have become a tricky issue for President Lee Jae Myung to navigate next week as his country hosts both President Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, ahead of an Asia-Pacific economic summit.

Mr. Lin estimated that about one in 20 of the people who come on his tours will have a badge or sign indicating they are from Taiwan. “If they get mistaken as Chinese and harassed, they can show it and they’ll be left alone,” he said.

Mr. Lin, who is from Taiwan, said he also advises Taiwanese tourists to avoid speaking Mandarin if they find themselves near an anti-China demonstration.

The protests threaten to further complicate the delicate diplomacy required of Mr. Lee next week as South Korea hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Xi and Mr. Trump are expected to meet ahead that summit.

Mr. Lee has condemned the anti-China protests, describing them as “self-destructive conduct that damages the national interest and image,” according to local news media. His progressive Democratic Party of Korea has introduced a bill in the National Assembly to ban rallies that promote hatred or discrimination, but faces opposition from the conservatives, who have said it could suppress dissent.

It is a fine line to walk for Mr. Lee, as he strives to quell potentially embarrassing protests without being perceived as cracking down too harshly.

“South Korea has a very lively protest culture,” said John Delury, a senior fellow at the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations who is based in Seoul. A severe response could “galvanize larger support for the protests — not out of anti-C.C.P. sentiment, but out of pro-protest culture sentiment,” he said, using the acronym for the Chinese Communist Party.

The relationship between Seoul and Beijing dropped to a low after the 2016 decision to deploy an advanced U.S. antimissile system in South Korea, which prompted economic and diplomatic retaliation from China. In the years since, although the relationship stabilized, surveys have shown growing distrust of China among South Koreans, particularly the younger generation.

The recent protests appear to have evolved from the demonstrations that began this year in support of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was expelled from office in April following his short-lived imposition of martial law. Many of the far-right activists and influencers who rallied around Mr. Yoon, a conservative, promoted anti-China theories, including the suggestion that Beijing was secretly manipulating elections in South Korea. Mr. Yoon also raised suspicions about Chinese spies when defending his martial law declaration.

Since Mr. Yoon’s impeachment, the continuing protests have become a catchall for a wide swath of right-wing concerns, with much of their rhetoric borrowed from right-wing campaigns in other countries like the “Stop the Steal” campaign after Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss.

In addition to signs and chants protesting China, demonstrators have also called for Mr. Yoon’s reinstatement, condemned Mr. Lee’s leadership and commemorated the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist and Trump ally who was killed in Utah last month, according to photos and videos from the protests.

Both Seoul and Beijing have sought to downplay the protesters as a fringe group. The Chinese Embassy in Seoul warned Chinese travelers this month to be vigilant when traveling to South Korea because of protests organized by “certain far right groups” but stressed that the majority of South Koreans welcomed Chinese tourists.

For many tourists, the protests have not dampened their experience of Seoul. Mr. Lin, the Taiwanese tour guide, said that beyond taking basic precautions, neither he nor the tourists who came on his tours were too anxious about the protests.

Brian Lu, 23, a livestreamer from China’s Guizhou province who was visiting Seoul after attending a concert in a nearby city, said that contrary to reports of anti-Chinese discrimination in the media, he had nothing but positive experiences in South Korea.

“It’s not like what’s portrayed online,” he said. “The people here smile a lot, a lot of people will greet you, and they’re very polite.”