According to one widely spread cell phone message, Carrefour’s largest shareholder, LV, once made donations to Dalai Lama, adding fuel to the boycott bonfire.
"A pin against an awl," meaning an eye for eye, is a very popular old saying in China. As some western people call for a boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games or at least the opening ceremony, some Chinese people think of boycotting western-owned businesses in China, since China’s huge and rapid-growing market has become important for many of them.
Li Jing, head of public relations for Carrefour’s Shanghai branch, said the company was investigating the situation.
The Olympic torch relay in Paris, the fifth stop outside mainland China, took place on April 7, but was disrupted by pro-Tibetan demonstrators. Several even tried but failed to snatch the torch from a handicapped, wheel chair-bound torchbearer.
On April 14, about 170,000 "boycott Carrefour" web pages could be found through Baidu search engine, though, some of them have been since been deleted, and related posts have occurred in famous websites. Netizens are calling for boycotts against Carrefour, suggesting all people refuse to shop there on the May 1 holiday. "Ask your relatives and friends to join in."
The word is also spreading though online chatting venues such as OICQ (the most popular instant messaging in China) and by the ubiquitous cell phones, suggesting not to shop at Carrefour between May 8 and May 24, exactly three months from the dates of the Games. "Show them the power of Chinese people and the Chinese network."
Rumor has it that Carrefour, to counteract boycott calls, is planning for a sale during the May 1 holiday.
Though Carrefour is French-owned, it is very much localized, selling largely local goods and employing thousands of Chinese workers as well as being very much managed by local talents, and it has been quietly suggested that it was not an appropriate boycott target, but that LV, the purveyor of extremely expensive luxury products, which are sold in China, might be.
But some stalwarts have already moved into action. Online video and pictures show a young woman, dressed in red, erecting a board with pictures of the attack on the handicapped torchbearer, along with slogans in Chinese, English and French against violence and distorted media reports, in front of a Carrefour supermarket in Beijing. In the video, police stop the woman and explain that while they sympathize with her they can not let her affect the public order.
"On this issue, the individual benefit coincides with that of the nation," cried the woman when relating the whole story at a forum at Tsinghua University, saying that she had spent two days preparing pictures for the board, and specially wore her red T-shirt that day. Thousands of people passing by crowded around the board, and she even talked to several foreigners, including some from France.
Carrefour Shanghai’s Li Jing said that the company was aware of the boycott call. As for the rumors of a big holiday sale, he claimed ignorance.
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