Now It's The Turn Of Mercedes-Benz To Grovel Before China, Over An Instagram Post Quoting The Dalai Lama

from the extremely-erroneous dept

A couple of weeks ago, Techdirt wrote about Marriott International kowtowing to China because of a drop-down menu that dared to suggest that Tibet might be a country. We noted that a newly-confident and increasingly aggressive China might well start finding more of these alleged "insults" to use as pretexts for asserting itself internationally. And sure enough, that's already happened again, this time with Mercedes-Benz. As a New York Times story explains, the German car maker posted an image of a white car parked on a beach, along with a quotation popularly ascribed to the Dalai Lama -- "Look at the situations from all angles, and you will become more open. #MondayMotivation" -- to its official Instagram account.

Becoming "more open" by looking at things from this particular angle didn't go down at all well in China, where the authorities regard Tibetan veneration of the Dalai Lama as a threat to political stability in the region. According to the New York Times, the post provoked an "outcry" from Chinese internet users, many of whom pledged to boycott the Mercedes brand. It's hard to gauge to what extent Chinese citizens did this spontaneously, or whether some of those protesting online were part of the authorities' well-oiled Internet surveillance and propaganda machine. In any case, what mattered was that the Chinese government was not happy at all, and Mercedes-Benz realized that if it wanted to carry on selling its cars in China, it had better start apologizing quickly and deeply. This it did by posting to its official Weibo account, translated here by the Shanghaiist:

This morning, we noticed that our company's international social media had posted an extremely erroneous message. For this, we sincerely apologize.

Although we deleted the post as soon as possible, we fully understand how it has hurt the feelings of people in this country, including our colleagues who work in the country. For this, we express our sincerest apologies.

The Chinese government evidently wanted to make the most of this new opportunity to humiliate a Western company. The People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper, went so far as to berate Mercedes-Benz thus in a headline (original in Chinese):

If you do like this, you are an enemy of the Chinese people!

What makes the situation even more absurd is that Instagram is blocked in China, and so in theory nobody in the country could even see the ad. As with the Marriott International story, it underlines that the Chinese government now believes it has a right to dictate what should happen outside its borders, as well as within them.

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Filed Under: china, dalia lama, free speech
Companies: instagram, marriott, mercedes-benz


Reader Comments

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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2018 @ 8:04pm

    So... it caused a public outcry... over an ad the public was forbidden from seeing in the first place?

    Yep, everything looks good and honest from here, boss. You keep on making your president a dictator for life and all that jazz.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2018 @ 8:12pm

    Re:

    I'm just waiting for the point when their president starts wearing red boots...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    wevrem (profile), 27 Feb 2018 @ 9:06pm

    the Chinese government now believes it has a right to dictate...

    And it's working out for them so far.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 27 Feb 2018 @ 10:06pm

    After Being The Butt Of Western Jokes For Centuries ...

    ... it is time for the Asians to have a laugh.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Öztiryakiler, 27 Feb 2018 @ 10:38pm

    Mercedes and Instagram Post surprise Mercedes :)

    Post post surprise Mercedes beauti beauti:))

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2018 @ 10:53pm

    "If you do like this, you are an enemy of the Chinese people"

    Apparently in China, enemy-shaming is the new fad.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2018 @ 11:25pm

    Re:

    "New"? Playing the shame game has been a thing in Chinese culture since forever.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    homo, 27 Feb 2018 @ 11:56pm

    sexual

    = homosexual

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    Jinxed (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 5:25am

    "it underlines that the Chinese government now believes it has a right to dictate what should happen outside its borders, as well as within them."

    Golly gee, Techdirt. I'm really confused as to how the Chinese picked up the idea of meddling into the affairs of others because of business.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    orbitalinsertion (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 5:27am

    So the post is both erroneous and and an assault on China not because of what it says, but because of who may have said this in a quotable manner once.

    China and Mercedes officially hate looking at anything from more than one angle. That's probably an obvious thing with most governments and corporations, but good to hear it openly admitted.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. icon
    orbitalinsertion (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 5:28am

    Re:

    But then they just inverse-Steisanded the Dalai Lama. Smooth move.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Jack, 28 Feb 2018 @ 5:36am

    Bad example

    Sad reality is that it sends a wrong message to our children that bullying is the way to go. We must realize that when children see examples like this, we have problems with school bullying ....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. icon
    Ninja (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 5:48am

    @Mercedes: grow some balls (is there a gender neutral for this term?)

    @China: fuk off

    @US: keep teaching other countries not to respect their borders, it won't backfire, no. /s

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. icon
    JoeCool (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 5:51am

    Re: Bad example

    It may be the wrong message, but at least it's consistent. The big example from my gen was yammering incessantly how drugs are bad while chugging a bourbon, smoking a stogie, and popping handfuls of prescription pills. They couldn't have looked like bigger hypocritical douche-bags if they tried. They even stuck this asinine statement into our video games.

    Every gen has to put up with this sort of hypocrisy from those in authority - in many different forms. The war on drugs has stretched over the last few generations, and doesn't look to be ending anytime soon.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2018 @ 6:04am

    Is China a snowflake?

    Don't want them to throw a tantrum now.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. icon
    JustMe (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 6:13am

    Re: Re: Red Boots!

    Nice reference to The Good Place! If anything, my esteem for their leader will go up if they wear this pair of red boots.

    https://tenor.com/view/red-boots-were-going-to-crash-panic-nervous-william-jackson-harper-gif -10610369

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2018 @ 7:33am

    Re: Re: Re: Red Boots!

    ...Not really. Red boots were a sign of a dictator, worn by Julius Caesar.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2018 @ 7:49am

    Re:

    is there a gender neutral for this term?

    backbone/spine?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. icon
    Ninja (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 9:05am

    Re: Re:

    Good alternative yes, thanks for the reminder.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. icon
    Oblate (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 10:05am

    Now they lose sales everywhere else...

    The proper response would be to give the Dalai Lama a free Mercedes and include a protractor with every new car sold.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2018 @ 10:08am

    Re:

    Damn good too...

    business line right the fuck up to kiss China government ass!

    all the fucking money!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2018 @ 10:09am

    Re: Re:

    Chinese culture?


    All Human Culture does it... ALL!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. icon
    John85851 (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 10:14am

    Shouldn't Mercedes know better?

    I'm going to play the devil's advocate here...

    Mercedes-Benz is a huge multi-national corporation which I assume has legal departments that are well-versed in protocol and international cultures.

    So why did anyone think it was a good idea to run an ad with a quote from the Dalai Lama? Did they not know or not understand that it could offend people in China and that those same people could be customers?

    Or if we're cynical: did they do something to offend Chinese people, but they did it on Instagram because it's blocked in China, for the simple reason that it gets more attention. Look- we're now even talking about the story!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  24. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2018 @ 10:20am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Red Boots!

    Red Legs

    link to this | view in thread ]

  25. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2018 @ 10:22am

    Re: Re: Re:

    I never thought of politics as as cultural but ... I suppose.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  26. icon
    Ed (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 10:53am

    "It's hard to gauge to what extent Chinese citizens did this spontaneously, or whether some of those protesting online were part of the authorities' well-oiled Internet surveillance and propaganda machine."

    I would wager 99% was the later. From my time living in China, I can say with some degree of certainty that the average person doesn't give a flip about the Dalai Lama or would even know that quote was attributed to him.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  27. icon
    takitus (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 12:03pm

    The flexibility of "hateful"

    The Chinese Government’sAHEM People’s Daily also makes this interesting comment:

    “It is not only an offense, but even more so, it’s a challenge to the Chinese people. Needless to say, it’s hateful.”

    This is an obvious lesson in how flexible the definition of “hate speech” is in the hands of clever propagandists. Even an uncited quote encouraging broad-mindedness can be spun as hateful, given enough Orwellian oomph.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  28. icon
    crade (profile), 28 Feb 2018 @ 12:23pm

    imho this is much worse than the Marriot issue.. For mercedes to so readily kowtow over this makes them an enemy of everyone who isn't the chinese gov't.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  29. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2018 @ 12:51pm

    Nothing but sabre rattling.

    I grew up in a very Chinese neighbourhood. I can confirm that Chinese people are addicted to driving Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

    I don't think the Chinese government would be so dumb as to stop letting their people buy these cars, I'm sure they make a fortune on sales tax. Nothing will come from this, they're just getting pissy about Tibet like they always do.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  30. identicon
    Öztiryakiler, 7 Mar 2018 @ 2:08am

    Mercedes ?

    Extremely ridiculous...

    link to this | view in thread ]


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