Following the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling in favor of the Philippines in its historic case against China over the West Philippine Sea, Chinese citizens took to social media to urge people to boycott imports from the country—in particular, the humble Philippine mangoes.
Slogans like “If you want to eat mango, buy Thailand’s” and “Starve the Filipinos to death” have been widely circulated on microblogging site Weibo. “If you love China, don’t buy Filipino imports”, said one comment. “I will eat Guangxi dried mango, drink Yunnan coffee and eat durian from Hainan. Anyway the point is, I’m making sure my money stays in China,” another comment said.
Even some vendors on Taobao, China’s largest e-shopping platform, pledged to boycott the Filipino snack, dried mango.
“Our online shop will not sell Cebu mango from the Philippines and will not sell any snacks imported from the country anymore”, a Shanghai-based vendor on Taobao told state media outlet Global Times.
The topics #SouthChinaSeaResult and #ChinaDoesn’tCareAboutYou have been among the top 10 trending topics on Weibo since the ruling.
Another popular post that has been circulating on Weibo reads: “Let’s all start boycotting today. Do not buy goods from South Korea, Japan, America and the Philippines. Do not travel there. I cannot fight on the front lines, but I will not be the foolish citizen who provides bullets for the enemy.”
Some skeptical web users challenged these patriotic netizens by asking them to show their determination by smashing their iPhones, which apparently represent the ultimate American product.
Chinese media is heavily controlled and censored, which goes some way to explaining the noticeable lack of negative comments directed towards the Chinese government.
