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Chinese rallies call for boycott of French goods

Hundreds of Chinese protested yesterday in Beijing and several other cities against France over its attitude toward Tibet and the Olympic Games, police and witnesses said.

Many of the demonstrators congregated in front of branches of Carrefour, the French supermarket chain accused by some Chinese of supporting Tibet, an allegation it denies.

“There were a couple of hundred, mostly young people in the morning, and by noon they were gone,” said an employee at a bookstore near one Carrefour outlet in the central city of Wuhan.

“I don’t know whether they were persuaded to leave or what. I didn’t see any signs, only some national flags,” he said, declining to be named.

The protest started with about 300 demonstrators, which swelled to around 10,000 toward noon, a a separate source said, quoting a Wuhan police report.

Crowds at the protests chanted “Boycott Carrefour” and “Oppose Tibet independence,” Xinhua news agency reported.

It reported protests in Beijing, in the eastern cities of Hefei and Qingdao, in the southwestern city of Kunming and in Wuhan.

Anti-French sentiment in China has been rising since the chaotic Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay, where pro-Tibet protesters tried to wrestle the flame from Jin Jing (金晶), a young wheelchair-bound fencer.

The resentment has been amplified by French President Nicolas Sarkozy linking his appearance at the Olympic Games opening ceremony to progress on human rights in Tibet, following China’s crackdown in the region.

In Hefei yesterday, the square where Carrefour is located was packed with people, a receptionist in a restaurant across the street said.

“There are protesters and people who gathered to watch and show their support. Even crossovers and footpaths are packed with people,” she said.

“Yesterday, there were many trucks in the parking lot of Carrefour and people standing on top of the trucks to protest,” she said.

A witness in Qingdao said there were a large number of demonstrators at a Carrefour on Friday and yesterday.

“Today, there are more people than yesterday joining in. With all those protesters, I wonder how anyone can still manage to buy stuff there,” she said.

Smaller protests erupted in Beijing around the French embassy and the nearby French School, Xinhua and other witnesses said.

About 10 cars draped in Chinese flags drove around the embassy before the area was blocked by police, witnesses said.

A little later, a small group of Chinese people gathered in front of the school, holding placards, the witnesses said.

Further protests took place outside a Carrefour store in Shenzhen, an amateur film on a video-sharing Web site showed. It was unclear whether ittook place on Friday or yesterday.

No injuries or arrests were reported at the demonstrations. It was unclear whether they were spontaneous or engineered by the government.

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