Firm denies Filipino links amid boycott calls

A Chinese supermarket chain has denied its overseas connections amid angry calls for a boycott after its former owner was found to have led recent anti-China protests over an ongoing sovereignty dispute between the Philippines and China.

Chinese media recently reported that Loida Nicolas Lewis, a Philippine-born US businesswoman who led worldwide protests against China over the Huangyan Island dispute on May 11, has also been operating a successful supermarket chain based in southeastern seaport city of Xiamen in Fujian province.

A call for a boycott posted at Sina Weibo, China's most popular tweeting service, was forwarded 79,000 times as of Tuesday. The number of tweets related to "Beatrice" -- the name of the supermarket -- at Sina Weibo has grown to 400,000.

"While earning big money in China, the boss of Beatrice Group was organizing anti-China protests worldwide," a netizen using a screenname "dehuocongrui" wrote. "Everybody should see through her and join the boycott."

Li Feng, deputy general manager at Xiamen Beatrice Chain Stores Co Ltd, told Xinhua that the company is now fully Chinese-owned and no longer maintains relations with Lewis.

Records from the Xiamen Industry and Commerce Bureau showed that Lewis was chair of the board of Xiamen Beatrice Chain Stores Co Ltd from June 2005 to December 2009, when the company was jointly owned by the US-registered TLC Beatrice International Holdings and the Philippine-registered Multi-World Philippines International.

However, the two foreign owners sold Beatrice to a Chinese company, which then sold it to two local Chinese individuals in March 2010, records showed.

The company's current owners -- Shi Qi and Chen Shuiqing -- do not know Lewis, Li said.

However, the owners admitted that the company's turnover has dropped by nearly 10 percent since the controversy erupted.

Beatrice now runs 38 convenience stores and employs 200 workers in Xiamen. A saleswoman at one of the stores said she had received angry phone calls and been asked to quit.

"We should be patriotic, but not blindly patriotic," another Beatrice salesperson said.

Tensions in the South China Sea started on April 10, when a Philippine warship harassed 12 Chinese fishing vessels that had sailed near the island to seek shelter from inclement weathers.

Chinese officials have repeatedly stated that Huangyan Island is an inherent part of China's territory and that the surrounding waters are historic fishing areas of Chinese fishermen.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei urged Monday the Philippines to respect China's territorial sovereignty and "refrain from taking action that could expand and complicate the situation."

The Chinese public has grown increasingly frustrated with Manila's response to the Huangyan Island dispute over the past month.

"The outpour of patriotism is understandable," said Li Jinming, a Xiamen University professor who has done extensive research on South China Sea issues. "But we should neither be irrational nor overreact."

He said all legal business activities should be protected so that investors' confidence in the Chinese market would not be harmed.

A number of Philippine businesses, ranging from real estate and clothing to airlines and snack food brands, are currently operating in China. Many of them are located in Fujian, the ancestral home of most of the Philippines' ethnic Chinese population.