France Riots: Chinese Café Owner Beaten as Looters Set Business Ablaze

A Chinese restaurant owner in Paris was beaten unconscious, robbed, and left with serious injuries after rioters stormed her business and set it on fire during widespread unrest across France. The attack was part of a wave of violence that left approximately 3,000 businesses damaged or looted and resulted in more than 2,400 arrests.

The violence erupted during nationwide demonstrations on Oct. 17 over rising living costs and deteriorating public services. According to the Associated Press, hundreds of thousands participated in largely peaceful protests before masked groups engaged in widespread vandalism, looting, and arson.

Chinese café owner beaten unconscious as rioters destroy her business

Aline Li, a 50-year-old Chinese immigrant from Zhejiang province, operated La Barrique, a café, restaurant, and tobacco shop near Place de la République in Paris’s 10th arrondissement.

According to an Oct. 20 report by the South China Morning Post, Li’s business was among those destroyed during the Oct. 17 violence. The newspaper’s correspondent visited the location and found Li supervising workers as they boarded up the burned-out establishment, her face still bearing cuts and bruises.

Li and her husband, Kévin, had lowered the restaurant’s metal security shutters as crowds gathered outside. However, the barriers failed when looters forced their way inside.

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In an interview with The Times, Li described being struck with what she believed was a metal bar, briefly losing consciousness, and requiring stitches. The attackers stole cigarettes, alcohol, lottery scratch cards, and electronic devices before the premises were destroyed by fire.

Among the details that particularly shocked Li was the apparent involvement of children.

“There was a boy of 12 or 13 at most at the front,” she told The Times, describing the young people involved in the attack.

The family’s ordeal was independently documented by Le Monde, whose reporters encountered the couple’s son, Lionel, guarding the devastated restaurant.

“My mother was inside when they attacked,” he said, explaining that both parents had been taken to hospital.

Despite the destruction, Li expressed concern for her neighbors when speaking with the South China Morning Post.

“I’m fine, what matters is that you guys are also OK,” she said.

However, the experience left her uncertain about reopening.

“I’m scared that the same thing could happen again,” Li told The Times.

Thousands arrested as French government admits losing control

The attack on Li’s restaurant was one of thousands reported across France as violence spread through Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, and other cities.

According to the Associated Press, authorities estimated that at least 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted. Approximately 2,400 people were arrested, including 855 in the Paris region.

Around Place de la République, looters smashed storefronts, overwhelmed security barriers, and stole merchandise from supermarkets, electronics retailers, and small businesses. The violence also affected journalists. Euronews correspondent Estelle Nilsson-Julien reported that masked individuals attacked her television crew while they filmed the looting of an Intermarché supermarket near Boulevard de Magenta. The attackers assaulted her cameraman and temporarily seized the crew’s camera.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned what he described as “unrestrained violence,” blaming radical far-left elements and criminals who exploited the demonstrations. He ordered a review of intelligence and police planning failures that had left authorities unprepared for the scale of the unrest.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged that police had “lost control” in several major cities.

According to AFP’s Oct. 19 report, Nuñez offered his resignation over the security failures, but Macron refused to accept it, citing the need for continuity in law enforcement leadership.

The government subsequently introduced localized curfews, including restrictions around Place de la République and the Les Halles shopping district in Paris.

For business owners, however, the government’s response came after extensive damage had already been inflicted.

Speaking to Le Monde, the owner of a hair salon on Boulevard Magenta described how masked attackers had stripped his business of merchandise and equipment.

“I don’t understand, we have nothing to do with any of this,” he said.

The unrest has deepened criticism of the government’s handling of public security while drawing renewed attention to the economic grievances that brought hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrators onto French streets.