We feel the burn.
After the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled in favor of the Philippines, the Chinese government made it known that it was not recognizing the decision on the long-running territorial dispute.
Chinese netizens then used social media to call for a boycott of Philippine products, specifically mango.
As BBC News reported, “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.”
The report noted: “Even some vendors on Taobao, China’s largest e-shopping platform, pledged to boycott the Filipino snack.” The report qupted a Shanghai-based vendor on Taobao, who told state media outlet Global Times, “Our online shop will not sell Cebu mango from the Philippines and will not sell any snacks imported from the country anymore.”
Aside from boycotting mangoes and other Philippine-made, some Chinese citizens are also opting to forego traveling to the Philippines. A report from The Straits Times published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted a Shanghai resident, who remarked: “Those islands and the seas surrounding them definitely belong to China, so I won’t consider going (to the Philippines) in the near future.”
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