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Internet Users Strike Back

Chinese Call for Boycott of French Goods

Olympic torch protests in Paris and other Western cities enraged Chinese Internet users. Now they want to make their feelings heard with a consumer boycott against French companies like Louis Vuitton, Peugeot, L'Oréal and Carrefour.

After the protests that marred the Olympic torch relay in London, Paris and San Francisco, Chinese Internet users are trying to hit back with a grassroots boycott against French supermarket chain Carrefour. The Internet organizers allege that Carrefour is part owned by luxury goods company Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), which they in turn accuse of having donated a "lot of money to the Dalai Lama."

In fact, holding company Blue Capital owns a 10.7 percent stake in Carrefour. The firm is owned jointly by billionaire LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault together with the property company Colony Capital. It is unclear, however, whether Arnault has ever provided support to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

Chinese newspapers have given the campaign a boost by reporting extensively on it. Communist party mouthpiece theGlobal Times wrote that "many" Chinese in France and China were calling for a boycott.

Calls are also circulating for a boycott against LVMH as well as luxury brand Christian Dior. Some Internet entries are also demanding that Chinese consumers avoid products from carmaker Peugeot and cosmetics company L'Oréal.

So far, though, Carrefour remains the main target of the campaign, with messages on Web chat boards, petitions and mobile phone text messages all urging Chinese consumers to stop shopping at the company's so-called hypermarkets in May.

"Show them the power of the Chinese people," one SMS read, according to news reports. "I hope that you will mobilize your friends."

Although it is too early to say how much support a boycott will have, a survey on the Web portal NetEase said 94 percent of nearly 11,000 respondents were in favor of a boycott.

According to supporters of the boycott the luxury goods group LVMH, a large shareholder of Carrefour, has "donated a lot of money to the Dalai Lama," Reuters reported.

"The French Ignored Chinese People's Feelings"

A petition on the Web site www.anti-jialefu.cn -- the Chinese name for Carrefour -- claimed the recent protests in Paris were an attack on China. "The French people and government ignored the serious spirit of the Olympic torch, and ignored Chinese people's feelings," the petition said. "We encourage you not to go to Carrefour again to buy goods ... China cannot be insulted!"

Another boycott call, posted on the Web portal Chinaren, said: "Adding the French people's support for Tibetan separatists during the Paris leg of the torch relay, there is truly no reason to give the French money by buying their goods."

The Carrefour group, which is one of the most popular supermarket chains in China, responded to the boycott calls by saying it had always backed Beijing's bid to host the Olympics. In a statement, released Tuesday, it said: "Information running on the Internet in China, which would aim at giving the Carrefour Group some role in the Chinese political actuality or the international relations, are wrong and baseless."

In a separate development, French athletes were told they could not wear badges at the Olympic Games in Beijing bearing protest messages against the Chinese regime for its crackdown on protestors in Tibet. French National Olympic Committee head Henri Serandour said wearing the "For A Better World" badges would be in violation of the Olympic Charter, which rules out any kind of "demonstrations or political, religious or racial propaganda."

Meanwhile, a row has also broken out between Chinese officials and satellite news channel CNN after one of the American station's commentators called Chinese "goons" and said imports from China were "junk with lead paint on them and poisoned pet food." Jack Cafferty made the remarks on the political show "The Situation Room" earlier this month. He added that the Chinese are "basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years." At a news conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu described the broadcast as an "evil attack by the CNN anchor against the Chinese people" and demanded an apology. "Cafferty used the microphone in his hand to slander China and the Chinese people and seriously violated reporting ethics."

maw/ap/reuters