Starbucks has emerged as the latest brand to fall foul of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters after a family member of a local caterer that runs the local franchise spoke out against demonstrators.
Multiple branches were covered with graffiti over the weekend as the territory convulsed with some of the most intense clashes between hardcore protesters and riot police in weeks.
One cafe in Wanchai District was daubed with “boycott” slogans, as well as insults to the police and Maxim’s Caterers, the major Hong Kong restaurant chain that runs Starbucks outlets in the territory.
Photo: AFP
The vandalism illustrates the huge pressures on international brands as Beijing pressures businesses to publicly condemn the protests. Those that do risk a protester backlash — but staying silent risks financial punishment in China, a far more lucrative market.
The boycott campaign against Maxim’s snowballed after Annie Wu (伍淑清), the daughter of Maxim’s wealthy founder, delivered a speech earlier this month in which she condemned the protests and said that Beijing’s hardline stance against the pro-democracy advocates should be supported.
She was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva alongside Pansy Ho (何超瓊), a billionaire casino magnate who made similar calls.
Their comments were seized on by protesters and portrayed as an example of how Hong Kong’s wealthy elite are out of touch with public sentiment and in the pockets of Beijing.
Prominent democracy campaigner Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) was among those calling for a boycott of Starbucks since Wu’s speech and more than 50,000 people have signed a petition asking the Seattle-headquartered company to sever ties with Maxim’s.
“We herein urge the Board of Directors to consider whether Maxim’s truly represents the social values of Starbucks and terminate the franchise to Maxim’s immediately,” Wong wrote on Twitter on Friday.
Maxim’s did not respond to requests for comment yesterday, but it has previously issued statements distancing itself from Wu’s comments and saying that she is not employed by the company.
Other major brands have been rounded on by protesters, either for pro-Beijing comments made by owners or because the owners themselves are linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
Yoshinoya, a popular beef bowl chain, and Genki Sushi — also owned by Maxim’s — have been repeatedly tagged with graffiti, along with Bank of China branches.
Brands deemed to be sympathetic to protesters have also had a torrid time and faced boycotts in China. Chinese authorities tore into Cathay Pacific after staff joined protests, forcing the company to go through stricter regulatory checks.
The moves led to major staff changes on Cathay’s board, including the resignation of its CEO, as well as multiple staff being fired for expressing pro-democracy sentiments, something some employees have described as a “purge.”
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS