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Internet fuels mass patriotic fervor in China Andrew Jacobs and Jimmy Wang / IHT | April 21, 2008 Armed with her laptop and her indignation, Zhu Xiaomeng sits in her dorm room here, stoking a popular backlash against Western support for Tibet that has unnerved foreign investors, Western diplomats and, increasingly, the ruling Communist Party. Over the last week, Zhu and her classmates have been channeling anger over anti-China protests during the tumultuous Olympic torch relay into a boycott campaign against French companies, blamed for what they see as their country's support of pro-Tibetan agitators. Some have also called for a boycott against U.S. chains like McDonald's and KFC. On Friday and Saturday, protesters gathered in front of a half-dozen outlets of the French retailer Carrefour, including a demonstration in the central city of Wuhan that drew up to 1,000 people carrying Chinese flags and singing the national anthem, The Associated Press reported. On Sunday, protests continued in Xian, Harbin and Jinan, The AP said, citing Xinhua, the government news agency. (Article continues below)
In Beijing, about 50 demonstrators carrying banners held a brief rally at the French Embassy before the police shooed them away on Saturday. For the moment, however, most of the outrage is confined to the Internet. More than 20 million people have signed online petitions saying they plan to stop shopping at Carrefour, Louis Vuitton and other stores linked to France because of what they see as the country's failure to protect the torch during its visit to Paris two weeks ago. In a survey released on Friday, Xinhua said 66 percent of those who responded said they would stay away from Carrefour during a monthlong boycott planned for May. CLICK ON THE BANNER TO BUY TERRORSTORM IN |
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