Posted on 04/20/2008 5:24:39 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
BEIJING - Demonstrations against French supermarket chain Carrefour erupted in cities across China on Saturday, fueled by anger over the disruption of the Olympic torch relay when it went through Paris nearly two weeks ago.
Other protesters gathered outside the French Embassy and the Beijing French School.
The recent unrest in Tibet and protests during the worldwide Olympic torch relay have created a backlash of anger inside China against those viewed as supporting independence for Tibet.
The nationalist outburst comes as Chinese state media has launched a sustained attack against foreign critics of China's Tibet policy and on the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, who Beijing blames for instigating riots last month in Tibet's capital.
Hundreds of protesters carrying Chinese flags and pictures of the late Communist Party chairman, Mao Zedong, gathered outside a Carrefour store in Wuhan in central Hubei province Saturday.
A woman working at a store in the same building as the Carrefour estimated about 1,000 people took part in the protests, mostly youth and university students. They held banners and sang the national anthem, said the woman, who would only give her surname, Wang.
Hong Kong broadcaster Cable TV reported several thousand protesters gathered outside the Carrefour in Hefei, in eastern China's Anhui province. A staff member confirmed there had been a demonstration and the store had closed, but she would not provide details and hung up without providing her name.
Protests also took place at Carrefour stores in the southwestern city of Kunming, the popular tourist city Xian in northern China and the port city of Qingdao.
A woman who answered the phone at the Carrefour in Kunming said "a lot of people are still outside protesting." She refused to give her name and more details.
On Saturday, small protests broke out in Beijing at a Carrefour and outside the French Embassy, where a placard read "Tibet is part of China." The official Xinhua News Agency also reported a protest in front of the Beijing French School.
"We're supporting the Olympics and boycotting Tibetan independence," said the organizer of the protest at the Beijing Carrefour, who refused to give his name.
Carrefour is the second-largest "hypermarket" in the world after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. It has 122 stores in China employing 40,000 people. Carrefour Group said in a statement last week that it supports the Beijing Olympics, and allegations that it has a role in Chinese politics or international relations were "baseless."
Calls to protest and boycott goods from Carrefour — one of the most popular supermarket chains in China — spread through Internet chat rooms and via cell phone text messages after the pro-Tibet protests disrupted Olympic torch stops.
The round-the-world torch relay was meant to highlight China's rising economic and political power. But activists have seized on it, disrupting the relay in several cities including Paris, London and San Francisco.
In Paris, the relay on April 7 descended into chaos, with protesters grabbing for the flame and forcing security officials to repeatedly snuff out the torch and transport it by bus past demonstrators yelling "Free Tibet!"
Some Chinese feel the protests were an attack on their country. Those nationalist feelings were amplified by the popularity of Jin Jing, a disabled fencer who became a household name after stubbornly clinging to the torch while a Tibet supporter tried to wrestle it away during the Paris relay.
Anti-French sentiment in China also has grown since French President Nicolas Sarkozy said last month he is considering not attending the Olympic Games opening ceremony because of China's crackdown on Tibet.
In Paris, thousands of pro-China demonstrators staged a protest Saturday in support of Beijing. Many of the protesters, who demonstrated at the Place de la Republique, wore T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase "Let's make the Olympics a bridge, not a wall" in French.
So far, China appears supportive of the views taken against Carrefour, but there are also signs that Beijing is attempting to calm some of the nationalistic spirit.
An editorial in Xinhua, which was featured prominently Saturday on Chinese online news portals, was titled: "The best way to love your country is to do your job well." Chinese should concentrate their energy on helping to build the Chinese economy, the editorial said.
Beijing has blamed recent violence in Tibet, which broke out March 14, on the Dalai Lama and his supporters. China said 22 people died in rioting in the Tibet capital of Lhasa.
The Dalai Lama's government-in-exile denies any involvement in the violence. It says more than 140 people were killed in the government crackdown.
Am I the only one who is hoping that at some point some completely douses the Olympic torch or buries it in snow?
To have to run that route over would be the ultimate embarrassment for China.
Yeah, gonna really love it when they put the torch on Everest.
It was doused or snuffed four times in Paris.
China, as a net exporter, had better not use the word “boycott” lightly. They will be more hurt by any reciprocity.
In Paris, the relay on April 7 descended into chaos, with protesters grabbing for the flame and forcing security officials to repeatedly snuff out the torch
French security ...
The Chicoms are trying to intimidate their opponents.
I’m angrier than ever with them and their Hitlereque Olympic propaganda show.
They can take the Olympics and shove them.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D905C3R00&show_article=1
The above article discusses Chinese people IN America and their outrage at the United States and CNN in particular’s criticism of”Them”. They talk about China like they never left it. Why are they here? Why are they so proud of “Goons and Junk” ? I was recently called out by some Poster claiming he was Chinese- American. Apparently they think of their race first. Not as Americans at all really. My criticism of China , and that the statement that all the “Chinese” waving Red Flags at the Tibet protests should go back to China if they don’t like the United States,was “racist”. Why are they here? To spy and propagandize for their commie home land is apparently the only reason .
The Peoples Republic has its people in this country and all other Chinese may feel an olbligation that’s more than patriotic to obey or else.
They’ve got spies in this country by the thousands. The arm of their secret police also runs into this country to enforce against any critics.
I think it would be seriously amusing if they burned down a Carrefour. Everyone knows that ordinary Chinese can’t demonstrate without government sponsorship. The destruction of a store would signal to foreign investors that the Chinese government will destroy foreign property when foreign relations are under stress. Part of the reason for the recent surge in investment in China is because of all the foreign promoters who have been talking China up. The crispy burned-out shell of a foreign store would be a useful counterpoint to their sunny projections. In conjunction with all the punitive regulations the Chinese have been putting up against foreign investment in the past several years, I suspect the shine on the China story will finally come off.
While agreeing with the application of this principle in this instance, there is evidence of countless numbers of demonstrations without government sponsorship.
In conjunction with all the punitive regulations the Chinese have been putting up against foreign investment in the past several years, I suspect the shine on the China story will finally come off.
Would you go so far as to predict the dulling of such shine in, say, September?
I have been boycotting Chinese goods. As much as I can due to bad labeling.
It is the same thing I think that people all around the world suffer from oppressive governments, that leads to a “Stockholm Syndrome”. People who are abused by their captors(government) begin to identify with the ones who control their every action.
A Russian Jew I know came to America with his Orthodox Ukrainian Christian wife and their daughter. They had been invited to leave the country by the Soviet government in 1990, his daughter was 8 at the time. His parents , being Jewish were crushed by the government in prison for being Jews. The family pretty much came here with just a few dollars and and their clothes. The father struggled for years, worked two to three jobs, and finally got a home for his family.
His daughter knows of their struggles , of the families oppression for generations in the home country, and all the liberties and freedoms she and her family have here now.She even remembers when Chernobyl blew and they lived a few towns away , that when her and her mother got sick the authorities tried to take them off to a place where other people never returned from.
She however still wonders if there was a war with the USSR whose side she would be on. Her parents would side with the US.Her circle of Russian and Ukrainian friend feel the same as her, and one close friend who is 25, is virtually a radical Marxist. Even though that young womans grandparents were killed in the 1960s for speaking out and being Jewish.
Thank you for speaking for those people who are intimidated by those who seek to silence their right to free speech.
We are kept up to date on this site about the crushing of free speech in China.Thanks to you and other posters I am now aware that brave Chinese who seek to speak the truth here in America are being intimidated by others who do not want them to enjoy the freedom we are guaranteed here.If you are in a big city surrounded by those who do this,if it is all possible, move to a suburb or a smaller town.If you lived there, I think that many people would stand up for you and your families rights. Big cities do not hear or respect the average man, small cities and towns do. There are Chinese in my small town, and no one here would not want them to have their say, in fact they would not like anyone telling a friend not to speak his mind.
Attack on an American volunteer by anti-Carrefour mob in Zhuzhou, Hunan
"The cab driver was shouting at him to get out. Then they started hitting the car.
The crowd was shouting "kill him! kill the Frenchman.""
Your English appears to be excellent to me and thank you for bringing your perspective to FR.
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