Here's why people in China are smashing their iPhones in protest
There are several groups in China who are infuriated over the ruling by an international court against the country. The furious groups are expressing their anger for America by smashing iPhones and mobbing KFC outlets, referring to what they symbolise as ‘American’.
Videos showing people smashing their iPhones are running viral on the social media network across China. Angry protesters are seen outside KFC outlets in around 17 cities, reported the local news, Sohu.
Mashable reveals a video on Meipai.com, a Chinese website, which shows students in a dorm smashing their iPhones with hammers. Another video shows a guy doing the same and posting the video online. Weibo also had posts of people purportedly smashing iPhones. One user goes to the extent of provoking other users to take out their iPhone and smash it and if they don’t, then they are not Chinese.
The Mashable reports that the users are directing their anger at the US, which they see as the Western force backing the smaller Asian countries with which China is in dispute over the ownership of a group of islands in the South China Sea. China has been in dispute with the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam over the Spratly Islands and the waterways around them, which it claims having historical ownership over the same.
However, last week marked an International tribunal ruling in favour of the Philippines, which awarded some of the islands off China’s coast to the smaller nation. This dispute with the Philippines and the international ruling is what China sees as anti-Chinese, which further led to the ‘patriotism’ issue where the people of China are ‘boycotting’ American goods.
This has brought Apple and KFC into the firing zone since the two are major business players in the country.
The official Xinhua news wire has now persuaded people not to take out anger on property. In an op-ed published Tuesday, the government-owned paper acknowledged the indignation felt by the Chinese, but denounced "irrational" acts as a way of expressing patriotism, reported Mashable.
Several years ago, a similar territorial dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands, saw people took take the streets, where Japanese cars were smashed, resulting in numerous injuries and damaged property.
