China looks at banishing Starbucks from palace
Caretakers of Beijing's Forbidden City may force Starbucks Corp. to close its outlet inside the 587-year-old imperial palace after the world's largest coffee shop chain was criticized by a Chinese news anchor on his blog.
The outlet is "a symbol of low-end US food culture" and "an insult to Chinese civilization," Rui Chenggang, an anchor at state broadcaster China Central Television, wrote on his personal Web log. The blog has attracted 544,054 hits and thousands of responses in Internet chat rooms since Jan. 12.
That has prompted the caretakers to study the matter and decide by the end of June whether the Starbucks outlet in the Forbidden City can remain or be abolished, the Beijing Morning Post newspaper reported Tuesday, citing spokesman Feng Naien. A Forbidden City spokeswoman, who would only be identified by her family name Liu, said the management office was considering its course of action.
The controversy underscores the Internet's increasing power in China to shape public opinion and shift public policy. Starbucks, which opened its first outlet in China in 2000, has more than 200 shops in the nation's 21 cities. 