Chinese Backlash Cools

Several hundred people demonstrated in front of outlets of French retailer Carrefour SA in a handful of Chinese cities, a relatively small display of public anger that suggests the backlash against foreign criticism of China is being contained.

Many Chinese people have been angered by foreign criticism -- ahead of the country's hosting of the Summer Olympics in August -- over Beijing's policies in Tibet and other human-rights issues. Carrefour, one of France's biggest investors in China, with 112 outlets across the country, has been singled out because of anger over the protest-plagued Paris leg of the Olympic-torch relay and because of Internet rumors in China that a Carrefour shareholder has supported the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader whom Beijing reviles as an independence activist. Carrefour has repeatedly denied providing any such support. Beijing last month offered to meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama, but the talks haven't materialized at this point.

Protesters have also criticized the Western news media, in particular CNN, alleging bias in reporting on deadly riots in Tibet in March and a resulting government crackdown.

Thursday's protests appeared to be significantly less extensive than similar demonstrations last month that also targeted Carrefour and that involved thousands of activists at stores in at least nine Chinese cities. Internet activists have been calling for several weeks for a boycott of Carrefour to begin on May 1, which is a national holiday in China.

Protests took place Thursday in the Southern city of Changsha, where some 200 demonstrators were involved, and in the Southeastern city of Fuzhou, where about 1,000 people gathered before police compelled them to disperse, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. There were also demonstrations in Southwestern China's Chongqing and in Shenyang in the Northeast, Xinhua said, but it didn't specify the size of protests in those cities.

In Beijing, police detained seven men and two women outside a Carrefour in the city's Haidian university district, the Associated Press reported. One man was stopped as he ran around with a sign that said 'Protest Carrefour, Protest CNN' as about 200 bystanders cheered, AP said. And in the inland tourist city of Xian, about two dozen people protested outside a Carrefour outlet carrying red banners reading 'Boycott Carrefour as soon as possible' and 'Boycott France,' Reuters reported.

China's government, concerned that the antiforeign backlash could spin out of control or hurt the country's image ahead of the Summer Games, has been moving in recent weeks to cool the nationalist fervor. A series of editorials in state-run media have called on people to give their patriotism more 'rational expression,' as one commentary recently put it. On Wednesday, Jia Qinglin, one of the Communist Party's top officials, called on the country to 'keep a sober mind and pool our patriotic passion to accumulate a mighty force that could overcome all difficulties in a bid to hold a successful Olympics.'

周四在几个中国城市的家乐福(Carrefour SA)门店前有数百人举行了抗议示威，规模较上个月有所减小，这显示中国公众针对外国批评之声的反击正在降温。

在中国即将举办奥运会之际，外国对北京的西藏政策和其他人权问题的指责令很多中国人愤慨不已。家乐福是在华投资规模最大的法国企业，有112家连锁店分布在中国各地。奥运火炬在巴黎传递时遭到抗议活动的严重干扰，且网上有传言称家乐福的一位股东支持达赖喇嘛，家乐福因此在中国成了众矢之的。家乐福反复重申并未支持达赖喇嘛。北京方面上个月提出与达赖的代表举行会面，不过目前尚未拟定会谈的具体时间和地点。

抗议者还对西方媒体进行了声讨，尤其是美国有线新闻网(CNN)，他们称西方媒体在报导西藏严重骚乱和随后的政府镇压行动时存在倾向性。

上个月至少在9个中国城市中有数千人聚集在家乐福门店前进行了抗议示威，与此相比，周四的抗议规模似乎明显缩小。数周来，一直有激进人士在网上呼吁从5月1日开始发起一场抵制家乐福的活动。

据中国官方媒体新华社报导，中国南方城市长沙周四有200人举行了抗议活动，东南部城市福州约有1,000名示威者聚集，他们后被警方强制劝离。新华社报导称，重庆和沈阳也发生了抗议活动，不过没有透露具体的参与人数。

据美联社(AP)报导，在北京海淀区的一个家乐福门店外，警方拘留了七名男子和两名女子。美联社报导称，一名男子举着写有“抗议家乐福，抗议CNN”字样的标语四处跑动，有200名围观者为其喝彩。路透社(Reuters)报导说，在内陆城市西安的一个家乐福门店外，有20多人举行了抗议，他们手持写有“尽快抵制家乐福”和“抵制法国”的红色条幅。

由于担心针对外国的抗议活动可能失控，或是在奥运会前损害中国形像，中国政府近几周来一直在为国内的民族主义情绪降温。官方媒体发表了一系列社论，呼吁公众用更为理性的方法表达自己的爱国之情。中共中央政治局常委、全国政协主席贾庆林周三呼吁公众“要保持清醒的头脑，将满腔的爱国热情凝聚成克服一切困难办好奥运会的强大力量”。