The Chinese-owned chain Luckin Coffee announced it was opening a its first location in the United States, to be located in Manhattan’s East Village between Broadway and East Eighth Street, in May of 2025. The decision was a stark challenge to the Trump administration’s fight on behalf of American-led businesses. Luckin pitches itself not as a purveyor of your morning cup of Joe, but as a “tech company” that just happens to own land and sell caffeinated beverages.
Lucking was not only aiming to break new ground, but to mount a comeback. The company began in China and quickly emerged as a formidable contender to Starbucks and other leading but imported brands of coffee. However, Luckin was exposed in 2020 for faking nearly half of its sales in one of the most wide-reaching revelations of fraud in modern business history.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Chinese company set itself up for an artificially high stock evaluation by selling “vouchers redeemable for tens of millions of cups of coffee to companies that had ties to Luckin’s chairman” Charles Lu. In addition, over $140 million in payments for raw materials were fabricated.
The original iteration of Luckin never broke ground on a U.S. location, but it did expand to the New York stock exchange before being removed after the fraud scandal. The company filed for bankruptcy after its collapse and reemerged in 2022 with restructured leadership. Since then, it has overtaken Starbucks to become the largest coffee seller in China, paving the way for it to reenter the U.S. market this year. Its two New York City stores had their grand openings on June 30.
Three months later, protests had already begun. The objections center around Luckin’s requirement that all customers download its app to order. No option to order via a human being or even an on-site kiosk is offered. However, Luckin and all other Chinese companies are required by Chinese law to provide access to all data to the communist government of China.
Thus, on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 11 a.m., protestors surrounded the Luckin Coffee in Manhattan in an event that included a press conference by Bold Action for Freedom, an anti-Chinese Communist organization founded by former Milwaukee City Councilman Tony Zielinski. Zielinski cites the role Chinese companies had in robbing his home city of its American manufacturing.
Zielinski cited a report from the Wall Street Journal that claimed the size of China’s American spy network could be as high as 600,000 individuals. Reached for comment, he told The American Spectator that he felt Americans were surprised to learn of the dangers of Luckin Coffee and claimed that, to China, “something as simple as coffee is not even off limits.”
The American Spectator sought to reach the Luckin Coffee location, but no phone number for contact is provided for the location or for Luckin customer service whatsoever.