Chinese boycott US firms amid tariff war |
US President Donald Trump`s tariffs on Chinese goods have roused some nationalist sentiment in the world`s second largest economy, where consumers have a long track record of spurning foreign products when political nerves are frayed. The messages began to pop up on Chinese social media as the trade spat with the United States sizzled, urging people to boycott McDonald`s and other American firms to “defend the economic Great Wall”. Appeals to shun the likes of McDonald`s, KFC and Apple`s iPhone have appeared on the popular WeChat messaging app and the Weibo microblogging website in recent days. The Chinese government has hit back at the US tariffs and vowed to retaliate to any new measures, but President Xi Jinping and Trump delivered conciliatory words this week that raised hope of a negotiated solution. Chinese living across the globe have considerable purchasing power. We can cause a lot of damage to the US economy, wrote one reader. But it may be tough to convince Chinese people to give up American brands that have become ubiquitous in streets and shopping centres across the vast country. The calls for boycotts certainly didn`t ruin the appetite of the lunch crowd at a McDonald`s in downtown Beijing this week, just a stone`s throw away from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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