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China lawmaker wants Forbidden City free of Starbucks

A visitor drinks coffee at a Starbucks outlet inside the Forbidden City in Beijing. (Photo: Reuters) A member of China's parliament has demanded the immediate closure of a Starbucks coffee shop set up inside Beijing's Forbidden City, the Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

Two months after a television host launched an online campaign to evict Starbucks Corp. from the former home of Chinese emperors, the seven-year-old store has had its logo removed but otherwise it's business as usual, the agency said. "Starbucks must move out of the imperial palace immediately, and it can no longer be allowed to taint China's national culture," said Jiang Hongbin, who represents the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang at the National People's Congress (NPC), a rubber-stamp legislature that meets once a year. "As long as it stays in the imperial palace, it poses a challenge to our traditional culture," said Jiang, who is president of Heilongjiang Chia Tai Co., a unit of Thai agricultural conglomerate CP Group. In response to the online boycott, the Palace Museum management had promised to seek a solution with Starbucks by the end of June, Xinhua said. The rent paid by Starbucks is used for maintenance of the palace, it added, citing museum managers. NPC delegates may suggest motions or proposals for legislation and government action, but these are rarely acted upon but can occasionally be incorporated into legislation. Other suggestions this year have included protecting under-sea archaeological finds, banning claims of state sponsorship in advertising, and making entrance to the Great Hall of the People free. Source: Reuters