Chinese consumers have proved a potent force in pushing change on local issues such as tainted milk and substandard vaccines. But that same outrage can be just as powerful when applied to politics, with critical coverage in state-controlled media spurring Internet users to call for boycotts on the country’s social media platforms. — Reuters
China’s most powerful weapon as geopolitical storm clouds gather may not be tariffs or riot police, but ordinary consumers at their keyboards.
Beijing is increasingly finding itself under siege as US President Donald Trump’s trade war squeezes the world’s second-largest economy and protests in Hong Kong call into question its hold over the territory. But as it has in the past, China is finding support from an increasingly nationalistic online community, who use the pitfalls of multinational companies to drive home their point.
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