The Guardian.co.uk – Chinese demand Carrefour boycott…

At lunch today I was sitting across from a local hire, Chinese national employee of Shanghai American School, talking shop, when she perked up and announced to the table that we should all NOT shop at Carrefour on May 1st. If you’re not familiar with Carrefour, it’s a French mega-retailer that operates dozens of shops around China, serving basically the same roll here as Wal-Mart does in the US.

My colleague’s enthusiastic declaration of a nationwide boycott of the French retailer caught me off guard. She explained that it was in response to the French president’s announcement that he might not attend the Olympics opening ceremonies in August in Beijing. I didn’t get it… what did the French president’s decision have to do with a giant retailer serving urban residents in China. How are these two entities related, and how does boycotting a French retail chain send a message to the French president?

My colleague didn’t seem concerned with the details, and simply reiterated the urgency of committing to NOT shopping at Carrefour on May 1st (in fact, I’ve shopped there only twice in the last two years, so I can safely say I will be participating in the boycott, by default).

I decided to see if I could find out more about this story, so after school today I did a Google News search, and sure enough, there is a nationwide boycott being planned by pro-Chinese activists though online chat rooms, text messages, and by patriotic bloggers, aimed at sending a clear message to the French. The boycott’s purpose, it turns out, does not really have to do with anything president Sarkozy said about the opening ceremonies, rather,

Supporters of the boycott call said brands under luxury goods group LVMH had “donated a lot of money to the D**ai L**a”. Carrefour is 10.7 percent-owned by Blue Capital, a holding company owned by property group Colony Capital and French billionaire Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of luxury goods group LVMH .

So it turns out the boycott has less to do with Sarkozy and more to do with some tenuous tie between one of Carrefour’s shareholders and the exiled leader of a politically sensitive region in the western part of China. Interesting. This got me thinking more.

Recently, Westerners have been exposed to lots of anti-Chinese sentiments in the news. From CNN commentator Jack Cafferty calling Chinese “a bunch of goons and thugs”, to Lou Dobbs’ regular reports on the “industrial espionage” and the “cyber-warfare” of the “Communist Chinese” against America, the Western media seems to focus on one side of the story, as the Chinese side seems to go unheard. The Carrefour boycott (as ill-devised as it seems, given the tenuousness of the link between Carrefour and any blatant anti-Chinese activities) is an attempt by patriotic, nationalistic Chinese send a loud signal to the West: “mess with China, and we won’t shop at stores owned by you!“

…”there is truly no reason to give the French money by buying their goods,” the boycott call said, posted on web portal Chinaren (www.chinaren.com).

“Let them see the Chinese people’s power, and the power of the Internet,” the post said.

Boycotts are funny things. Especially one-day boycotts like the one planned here. So let’s say that a few million Chinese agree NOT to shop at Carrefour on May 1st. First of all, my guess is that most people who support this boycott probably weren’t originally planning on shopping at Carrefour on May 1 (a Thursday), so those people won’t make any difference by continuing to NOT shop at Carrefour. Then there’s the people who would have shopped there. What will they do now? Go to a dozen or so local Chinese shops trying to find the things they would have bought at Carrefour? If so, then the boycott may in fact be effective, as local vendors will see an increase in their sales, Carrefour will suffer huge losses as their revenues cannot cover their operating costs, and a clear message will have been sent to France. More likely, however, shoppers who chose to avoid Carrefour on May 1st to show their patriotism will probably be first in line as the doors open on May 2nd… that’s just my guess.

Besides, as I read the passage quoted from a patriotic Chinese website above, “there is truly no reason to give the French money by buying their goods”, it dawned why this boycott is a dumb idea. Remember, Carrefour is like a French version of Wal-Mart. Hundreds of thousands of items from food to flat-screen TVs to lawn furniture to baby clothes: all made in France… wait a minute… hold on… let me check the label… oh, um, eh hem… I mean… yeah… Okay, so you get the point, NOTHING sold at Carrefour is made in France! Whose economy will be harmed if a boycott successfully dents Carrefour’s sales? France’s? There may be a few rich shareholders who feel the pinch, but more likely it’s factories right here in China, employing the very same patriotic Chinese who may support the boycott, who will suffer most if it is successful.

Finally, I followed a link from the Guardian article above to the website where the quote is from. (www.chinaren.com) Of course, everything was in Chinese, but through the magic of Google Translator I was able to read the headlines on this page. I thought I’d share them here. I didn’t read the articles, that would be tedious, but the headlines themselves are quite revealing:

• CNN news stigma of violence come from the gas
• Extremely shameless CNN Beijing Olympic Games does not welcome you
• Japanese look at how the Western media to demonize China
• 1000 source refused to admit to seek political asylum in the United States
• Bai Yansong Carrefour opposition boycott of the United States apologize CNN
• Million Chinese will be launched on the trans-European anti-T***t independence march
• Western China angry disdain brand affected France
• See passage of the Olympic flame safeguard the motherland’s honor dignity

Needless to say, these are headlines that did NOT make it onto CNN or BBC.

About the author:  Jason Welker teaches International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement Economics at Zurich International School in Switzerland. In addition to publishing various online resources for economics students and teachers, Jason developed the online version of the Economics course for the IB and is has authored two Economics textbooks: Pearson Baccalaureate’s Economics for the IB Diploma and REA’s AP Macroeconomics Crash Course. Jason is a native of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and is a passionate adventurer, who considers himself a skier / mountain biker who teaches Economics in his free time. He and his wife keep a ski chalet in the mountains of Northern Idaho, which now that they live in the Swiss Alps gets far too little use. Read more posts by this author

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