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Major nations including the United States and France protested against the Chinese government by cutting off financial, cultural and educational dealings with China. Not until the latter part of the 1990s were full exchanges resumed between China and the Western countries, due to efforts on both sides.
Now another anti-China wave is rising around the world, set off by the recent riots in Tibet and the subsequent crackdown on pro-Tibet independence forces. This time is somewhat different, however. The criticism against China is coming from within Western governments and the Western media, as well as from multinational companies. But unlike 1989, the criticism is taking the form of more symbolical rhetoric than actual practical sanctions.
Western leaders have been aggressive in adding oil to the fire. French President Nikolas Sarkozy warned he might boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said she would not attend. U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi even said the International Olympic Committee had made a mistake in awarding the 2008 Summer Olympics to China. On April 9, the U.S. House passed a resolution criticizing China over "repression" in Tibet. China expressed strong indignation over this, saying it would encourage pro-independence forces.
Western media have also fanned the flames. An article in the British newspaper Sunday Times compared the Beijing Olympic Games to those held by Nazi Germany in 1936, and a commentator for the U.S. television network CNN, Jack Cafferty, referred to goods made in China as "junk" and the country's leaders as "goons and thugs." Cafferty's insulting remarks aroused a great deal of anger in China, provoking charges of racism and prompting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue three demands for an apology from CNN.
Feeling their country under attack, many overseas Chinese have turned out for rallies to support the passage of the Olympic Torch during its relay around the world, and to counter rallies by pro-Tibet activists. At the same time, calls to boycott Western shops and companies have circulated widely on the Internet.
Inside China, the French supermarket Carrefour has been the target of such a boycott, and protests were held in front of several of its stores over the past week after Internet writers accused the company of donating money to pro-Tibet activists.
Last Sunday, demonstrators took to the streets in the northwestern city of Xi'an, eastern Jinan, and central city Wuhan, and the northeastern cities of Harbin and Dalian. The rallies followed Saturday's demonstrations in Beijing, Xi'an, the eastern cities of Hefei and Qingdao, Wuhan, and the southwestern city of Kunming. They mainly gathered in front of Carrefour outlets, chanting "Oppose Tibet independence!" and "Oppose CNN's anti-China statements!"
Carrefour's chairman, Jose Luis Duran, appeared on China Central Television to assure the Chinese people that his company had never provided support for Tibetan separatists, and that he fully supported the Beijing Olympics. Duran has reason to be concerned; Carrefour has 112 stores in different parts of China, which accounts for 9 percent of the company's global business.
The attacks on Carrefour are also an expression of anger over the disruption of the Olympic Torch relay in Paris and the French president's threat to boycott the Olympics' opening ceremony.
As expressions of Chinese nationalism have intensified, the government has called on citizens to express their patriotism in rational ways rather than indulging in protests and boycotts. The calls for boycotts continue to circulate online, however. One Internet poll revealed that 91 percent of 11,000 interviewees said they would boycott products made in France.
Still, the protests have remained peaceful and relatively subdued. Neither the French Embassy nor French companies have been pelted with rocks or eggs, as occurred at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in 1999 after U.S.-led NATO forces "mistakenly" attacked the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese personnel. Thousands of protestors tried to swarm into the U.S. Embassy compound to set it on fire.
This time around, some Chinese are calling for boycotts of U.S., German and British products as well as French. On the other hand, the BBC reported that many Westerners are also calling for a boycott of China-made products. China provides a huge portion of the West's consumer goods, including shoes, toys and electric products, sales of which have built up China's foreign currency reserves to the world's highest.
Are these anti-Western tactics by Chinese citizens justified? Will boycotts help bring about healthier international relations? Will they do any good for the coming Beijing Olympic Games? Is there an alternative approach to the situation that could help all sides reconcile their differences?
Even though many Chinese feel the need to save face by responding hotly to criticism of their country, their patriotic fervor should not be unleashed irrationally against everything Western. Boycotting one another will only harm the interests of all sides; we are after all living in the era of globalization, which makes our interests interdependent. Boycotts not only cause a great deal of inconvenience, they could threaten people's jobs and discourage multinational companies from investing in China. A stable investment environment is the biggest concern for companies assessing the risk of investing in a country.
On the other hand, multinational companies should not get involved in China's internal political affairs; this is a general taboo for foreign companies everywhere. The purpose of multinational companies is to make money, not to play politics.
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(Zhang Quanyi is an associate professor at the Zhejiang Wanli University in Ningbo, China, and a Ph.D. candidate at Shanghai International Studies University, studying policy making and collective identity. His research interests focus on conflict management and identity construction. He can be contacted at qyzhangupi@gmail.com. ©Copyright Zhang Quanyi.)
