简体中文
Police and media organizations are calling for rational patriotism after sporadic protests against the United States broke out across China in the past few days triggered by the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague's illegal ruling on the South China Sea issue.
According to the Global Times, local police have been taking action to contain scattered protests in China calling for a boycott of US products, especially fast-food restaurants like KFC, as protests continued Tuesday after an international arbitration court ruled against China's maritime claims last week.
Dozens of people gathered outside a KFC restaurant in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province on Tuesday, flashing banners that said "Boycott the US, Japan and South Korea; Boycott KFC and McDonalds! Wake up fellows," according to photos and videos uploaded online.
The protesters attacked a police officer who was trying to take away the banners, according to a report by news portal sohu.com. The mob shouted "Patriotism is not illegal," the report said.
China Daily reported that video clips posted online have shown protesters who believe the US was behind the ruling demonstrating outside restaurants owned by the US fast-food chain KFC in cities in Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hunan provinces starting on Monday.
Many demonstrators held red banners saying "Join the boycott against US, Japanese and Philippine companies, and be a patriotic Chinese" and stopped people from entering the restaurants. Police officers were dispatched to the protests to maintain public order.
A KFC employee surnamed Lei in Chenzhou, Hunan province, confirmed there had been a protest outside the restaurant on Monday. She said that business returned to normal on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a woman in Tangshan, Hebei province, filmed her protest on her mobile phone. The video was widely circulated on social media on Tuesday. In the video, the woman walked into the restaurant and told customers that it is they who pay for the bullets for the US.
There is no information about whether any arrests were made after the officer was pushed and elbowed away.
This was one of a dozen protests in China following The Hague arbitration tribunal's ruling that favored the Philippines in the South China Sea territorial disputes. The US and Japan are believed to be behind the drama, while a joint US-South Korean decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system in the Korean Peninsula has added fuel to the public anger in China.
Local police have started to warn people not to use radical and illegal ways to boycott foreign brands and products after protests broke out in at least a dozen cities and counties, including Changsha in Hunan Province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province and Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province.
The scale of the protests is far smaller than those that took place in late 2012 when tens of thousands of angry people took to the streets in dozens of Chinese cities to protest the "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, after which Sino-Japanese ties hit a new low. Some protesters lost control, smashing Japanese-brand cars and even injuring the Chinese drivers.
"Don't spread anger at home"
Yum! Brands Inc, China Division, which operates the KFC chain in China, declined to comment on the protests, according to the China Daily.
The protests have been criticized by the police and public.
After one such protest was held at a local KFC, police in Ganyu district, Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, issued a statement on Monday urging people to not get involved in illegal protests instigated via the internet or social media.
Pu Yu, 27, a Tangshan resident who works in Beijing, said she did not understand such behavior. "They are simply creating chaos in the name of patriotism. If KFC closes down, it's the locals who will be out of jobs."
The protests over the last few days mainly targeted KFC branches, although it is not known why they were singled out. In many cases, only dozens of people were involved, and more protests occurred in smaller cities like Laoting in Hebei Province.
Many local police started to use social media platforms like Sina Weibo and WeChat to warn about irrational and illegal protests against foreign brands.
The public security bureau in Siyang, a county in Suqian, Jiangsu Province, said on its official Weibo account that "patriotism is positive but don't spread your anger in our own territory."
Li Guangchun, a police officer from the Siyang public security bureau, told the Global Times that they posted the warning on Weibo to prevent people from using illegal and radical ways to express their patriotic emotions. "Many people are sharing misleading information and urging people to use radical measures to boycott foreign brands on WeChat and Weibo, but there have been no protests in Siyang so far," Li said.
One blogger tried to use the wave of patriotism to further his fame, reported news website Guancha. After entering a KFC restaurant, he swore at people, pretending to be a patriot, but, said the website, it was found that previously he had resorted to cheap stunts to attract attention.
Some people have called for a boycott of Philippine products, such as mangos, but the online patriotic calls have not been translated into action on larger trading and business relationships.
Gao Yan, deputy minister from the Ministry of Commerce, said Tuesday at a press conference in Beijing that the online boycott of Philippine products never happened.
She added that trade between China and the Philippines is stable and China is looking forward to deeper cooperation with all ASEAN countries, including the Philippines.
(APD)
