French retailer set for May Day protests

The Chinese campaign to boycott Carrefour, the French supermarket chain, has emerged as a test of Beijing’s efforts to stem the anti-foreign sentiment threatening to undermine the Olympics and infect China’s engagement with the west.

Carrefour has become a symbol in China of nationalist anger against foreigners in the wake of recent clashes in Tibet and the subsequent protests against the Olympics torch relay in Europe, the US and Asia.

Other French companies, including LVMH, the Paris-based luxury goods group, have also changed business plans for fear of attracting demonstrators’ wrath. Louis Vuitton, LVMH’s fashion brand, has postponed a week-long car rally in China until next year or 2010.

The campaign against Carre­four, which Chinese nationalists claim supported the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, will reach its climax in protests outside shops on Thursday, May Day.

In the latest public relations setback for Carrefour, Chinese checkout staff were ordered this week to remove caps carrying the Olympics logo because of alleged copyright violations.

BOCOG, the Beijing games organising committee, complained that the caps with the five-ringed trade-marked logo were for “commercial use” and should not be worn by Carrefour staff.

The success of efforts to fend off damage to Carrefour, which has 112 shops in China, has become a litmus test of the ability of the Beijing government to contain protests foreign targets generally. Beijing fears that the anti-foreign protests could spin out of control, damaging its ties with foreign governments and potentially turning against the ruling communist party itself.

With the backing of the French government, which has sent numerous high-level envoys to China in recent weeks, Carrefour, which says its China supermarkets receive 2m daily visits, has issued multiple apologies for the Paris protests against the torch relay.

The company has said it cannot yet assess the boycott’s damage to business. Jacques Beauchet, its director of human resources, said on Tuesday: “In the last 10 days or so between 10 and 15 stores out of 112 were impacted directly by demonstrations. It is too soon today to estimate the impact on sales.”

Carrefour, which had sales of €2.96bn ($4.6bn, £2.3bn) in China last year out of total group sales of €92.3bn, employs about 44,000 staff in China, prompting José Luis Duran, its chief executive, to say recently: “In China, we have become de facto Chinese.”

Carrefour executives have sought out the Chinese media to express their “resolute” opposition to “Tibet independence” and denied claims their Indian operations had funded the Dalai Lama.

“I 100 per cent confirm that this year’s Beijing Olympics will be 100 per cent successful,” one of the company’s provincial managers was quoted as saying in the Chinese press.

Carrefour executives are in daily contact with Chinese police ahead of May Day, when protesters planned to gather outside the company’s Chinese supermarkets in the culmination of the boycott campaign.

The company has already cancelled a sale planned for that day. Chinese internet postings had claimed that the sale was a “trick” by the French to incite riots by bargain-hunters outside its stores and cause injuries to shoppers.

The central government has blocked internet users on Chinese-language search engines from accessing sites using the word “Carrefour”, to prevent their use in organising protests.

Carrefour staff have also been wearing clothes decorated with Chinese flags, Unlike the caps, the clothes did not have to be removed.

Carrefour and BOCOG declined to comment in Beijing on Tuesday.