He also said that waterways such as the South China Sea were “the life bloodlines of commerce and the economic growth worldwide” and that Canberra and Washington were ready to face “any challenges in the Pacific with a united front”.
Advertisement
The Chinese also went on to smash their Apple iphones in protest.
Last week, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in The Hague ruled in an arbitration case initiated by the Philippines to limit the size of territorial waters claimed by China in the disputed maritime region.
“The Chinese public, as optimistic and positive as they are, are deeply patriotic and nationalistic, especially people who are younger”, James Roy of the research firm China Market Research Group, told the Associated Press.
A man in the eastern city of Yangzhou, northwest of Shanghai, said he watched a protest Tuesday morning after seeing a note online appealing to people to take part.
But the Chinese government has had enough, telling protestors through the the state-run People’s Daily newspaper Wednesday that they are being “irrational and disruptive”.
But he also said “flexing military muscles will only have the negative opposite effect”, referring to USA vessels cruising within 12 nautical miles of some of the contested islands, according to Xinhua, a Chinese state-run news service.
KFC’s owner, Yum Brands Inc., declined to comment. “A lot of people are calling for boycotts of USA and Japanese … goods, but there are some people calling for a boycott of goods made by idiots, too”. He said police arrived quickly and pushed the protesters out of the restaurant.
China has repeatedly blamed the USA for stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than US$5 trillion of trade moves annually.
Chinese netizen Xiucai Jianghu and friends mock nationalist anti-KFC protests in China, July 19, 2016.
“Boycott U.S., Japan and the Philippines!”
The company is also considering a cruise around the South China Sea at the appropriate time.
Advertisement
In April, it suspended its iBooks and iTunes Movies services, reportedly due to an order by Chinese regulators.
