Photos: Top Left: a conspicuously empty Carrefour today. Bottom: an average day at Carrefour before Sarkozy's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama.French President Nicholas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama looks like it's sparking the second French product boycott this year.
A story on the front of today's China Daily, the communist party newspaper, quoted online comments by angry Chinese citizens urging a nationwide boycott of French products and Carrefour, the French, international version of Walmart. I have no idea if the nationwide Carrefour boycott has actually caught on, but Carrefour is usually about as busy as the Shanghai subway. However, the store I visited tonight, photographed above, was noticeably empty.
"By the way, an advice for the surprised French - do not mistake spontaneous grassroots expressions of discontent for alleged government instigation," wrote the editorial staff in Sunday's China Daily. "Government preference may determine the purchase of Airbuses, or Boeings. But it cannot force people to travel to places they dislike, be it Paris, or Provence. Nor can it make consumers buy from brand names they feel bad about, be it Louis Vuitton, or Carrefour." Read more
Sarkozy, current president of the European Union, met with the Dalai Lama Saturday just prior to scheduled talks between the EU and China on the global financial crisis. Since Saturday's meeting, China postponed the EU-China talks indefinitely.
Sound familiar? It is, but slightly different from the April riots outside Chinese Carrefours. People are angry, but the government is formally telling people to stay calm. Comments made on China Daily's Web site, Chinese netizens said Sarkozy "hurt Chinese feelings," call Sarkozy "ignorant," "arrogant," and accuse him of "using the human rights card" too many times.
This issue doesn't seem to be the talk of the town, as French-China relations were in April, but it's certainly an issue worth following.
Read the CD article here.
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