Jane Lai

FRENCH retail chain Carrefour, the target of a proposed boycott call by Chinese Internet users following the protest-marred Beijing Olympic torch relay in Paris, said Tuesday that it had backed Beijing’s bid to host the Olympic Games from the very beginning.

Eric Legros, CEO of Carrefour China, said in a statement that he and Jose Luis Duran, CEO of the Carrefour Group, would attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in August to witness the historic moment.

“Carrefour has never been involved and will not get involved in any activities that harm the feelings of the Chinese people. We support the Games and wish it a success,” the statement said.

“Statements circulating on the Internet in China, which claim that Carrefour Group backed some illegal political organizations, are wrong and baseless,” it added.

Carrefour is the second-largest hypermarket chain in the world after Wal-Mart. It has 122 stores in China employing 40,000 people.

Messages on online Chinese chat boards, petitions and text messages urged people not to buy goods from Carrefour starting May 1.

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Many online groups called for the boycott of Carrefour as they believed Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) -- headed by Bernard Arnault, who is an investor in a company that has a 10.1 percent stake in the hypermarket chain -- was providing funding to the Tibetan separatists.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry yesterday urged Carrefour to “reflect upon opinions and sentiments expressed” by some Chinese people.

The ministry’s statement has to a certain extent reduced the opposition of some Chinese people to Carrefour.

“I had agreed to the online boycott. Actually most Chinese are strongly against the hostile behavior of the French during the torch relay and now Carrefour makes it clear that it has nothing to do with that, so I think maybe I should reconsider,” Shenzhen resident Wu Huiling said yesterday.

Bai Yansong, a well-known CCTV host, and He Yanguang, a reputable news photographer in China, opposed the boycott earlier this week.

The two said the boycott would just cause strife among the Chinese because most of Carrefour’s employees were Chinese and most products on sale were Chinese-made.

However, they were criticized by throngs of Internet users.