A popular Taiwanese bakery chain has become the latest victim of worsening tensions between China and Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing claims is part of China.
After a visit from Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen, the 85 Degrees Celsius Bakery attracted anger and calls for a boycott from both sides of the Taiwan strait this week.
Chinese delivery apps wiped the cafe from their platforms, and investors sold off shares in its parent company Gourmet Master, which fell 9.8% in trading in Taiwan.
The bakery franchise is one of several companies recently caught in the crossfire between Taiwan and China as ties between Beijing and Taipei worsen under Tsai. Her Democratic Progressive party advocates independence for the island.
On Friday, police in the north-eastern Chinese city of Ma’anshan said they detained a man after he posted on social media: “What law says you can’t call Taiwan a country?”
A numbere of airlines complied last month with Chinese demands to erase all descriptions referring to Taiwan as a non-Chinese territory. Organisations also face criticism for bowing to Chinese pressure. In April, the Man Booker international prize reversed its decision to describe a Taiwanese finalist as being from China after widespread criticism.
85 Degrees Celsius – which started in Taipei and expanded to mainland China, the US, and Australia – is one of Taiwan’s best-known exports, but the groundswell of anger toward the bakery is a sign of how polarising the debate over Taiwan’s status and relationship with China has become.
After Tsai’s visit to a Los Angeles branch of the bakery last weekend, Chinese netizens called for a boycott of the company’s more than 600 branches in China.
To stem the anger, 85 Degrees posted a message on the Chinese microblog Weibo, pledging its “firm support” of the 1992 consensus, a nominal agreement that Taiwan and China are part of “one China” and opposition to any “actions and opinions that separate” those on either side of the strait.
That statement, however, prompted anger in Taiwan. A politician from Tsai’s party suggested the bakery change its name to 92 Degrees to reflect its political leanings. Internet users criticised the company for folding to China. “Boycott! Boycott!” one wrote on PTT, a discussion bulletin board in Taiwan. “Seems this company should go back to China,” another wrote.
Nor did the bakery’s statement quell criticism in China. Listings for the bakery were no longer available on delivery apps like Meituan-Dianping and Ele.me. Weibo users posted images of the company’s website where China is listed as part of its overseas footprint. The company’s Chinese website, which now says it is “under construction,” has reportedly been hacked, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
“I don’t support companies doing business in China who don’t want a unified China. I think most Chinese people will agree with me,” said Nick Guo, a customer at an 85 Degrees bakery in Beijing.
