Carrefour Conspiracy!

With state controlled media in China, everyone knows that the newspaper and TV broadcasts need to be taken with a grain of salt. Luckily there is still a reliable source of information: gossip, the most fact worthy source of information known to man.

In China gossip is loved and treasured. SARS was rumored to be started by the CIA to destroy the China economy, the riots in Tibet began with a rumor (this is of course, controversial) that some monks were beaten up by policemen in front of a temple. This has led to the most recent string of rumors, which has led to a movement to boycott Carrefour, a French retailer.

The Carrefour boycotts began with a rumor that LVMH (Louis Vitton), a luxury goods company, donated money to the Dali Lama. The connection to Carrefour is as follows: the chief manager of LVMH is Bernard Anault who is also co-owner of Blue Capital with Colony Capital. Colony Capital owns 10.7% of Carrefour. So by association, Carrefour is supporting the Dalai Lama clique!

An official statement by LVMH says "Neither LVMH nor any individual shareholders have ever supported any organization or act that opposes the interests of the Chinese government and the Chinese people."

Now a new rumor started a few days ago that, as a response to boycotts across China, Carrefour is having a mega sale, slashing prices by as much as 50% for the May 1 labor day holiday. I haven't been able to confirm this sale, and the Carrefour China website does not have any information since it is undergoing a "website upgrade and maintenance" (rumored to be sabotaged by hackers).

The follow-up to this rumor is that the sale is part of some gigantic French conspiracy. It's mostly been spread via text messages, QQ, chat rooms and forums.

Below I've translated it from the Chinese:

Important news: The French government has appropriated 20 million USD, with Carrefour putting forth five million USD for the use of holding discounts on the May 1 national holiday. I've heard that upper echelons of Carrefour are very presumptuous, they want the Chinese on May 1 to stampede to Carrefour for the discounts, ideally resulting in a couple of deaths. The French TV stations are also actively making preparations. They want to film shots of Chinese people going crazy in Carrefour to shop. They want the Chinese to be seen as hypocrites.

Please send this message on to your family and friends, don't go to Carrefour to shop. Don't, for the sake of getting something cheap, lose your dignity, lose the aspirations of our race. Don't let the foreigners laugh at us. And don't let foreigners look at us like a disease of East Asia. It is not worth mentioning all the hard work we've done, but we definitely want to unite to let foreigners see our strength.

重大消息: 法国政府准备拿出二千万美金，家乐福自己再拿出五百万美金，用于五一降价促消，听说家乐福高层很狂妄，让中国人在五一降价中挤破家乐福，最好踩死几个人．法国电视台也在积极做准备，拍摄中国人到家乐福疯狂购物的镜像．让中国人自打自的嘴．
请把此信息传给你的亲戚朋友，不要到家乐福购物，不要为了丁点的小便宜，而丢了尊严，丢了民族志气，让外国人笑话．再不能让外国人把我们看作东亚病夫了.虽然我们的努力可能微不足道,但大家团结起来一定要让外国人看看我们的力量。

taken from http://bbs.onlylady.com/thread-313463-1-1.html

The authenticity of this rumor is definitely dubious, and it's safe to say that there are many Chinese who don't believe it. Why the French and Carrefour would put up 25 million bucks just to embarrass some Chinese shoppers is beyond me. I wouldn't exactly call the boycott of Carrefour widespread. People in the cities would much rather go to a store that's controversial yet convenient, then trek half an hour away to go to Carrefour's (inferior in my opinion) competitors (i.e. Walmart, Park and Shop). Still though, there's enough nationalist sentiment for this latest rumor to take hold, even among some people who I consider to be very smart. Only next week on May 1, when the packs descend upon the "sale," will we know for sure...