A peculiarly Chinese response to the “Occupy Wall Street” movement: occupy Walmart. At a time of popular anger towards icons of capitalism, authorities in the south-western city of Chongqing have chosen to go after the US retail giant for the crime of mislabelling ordinary pork as “organic”.
Two forces are at work here. First is the groundswell of nationalistic feeling supporting Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, son of Mao Zedong’s finance minister. Mr Bo is pushing for promotion next year to the nine-man Standing Committee of the Politburo – China’s highest decision-making body. Second is food inflation, most evident in the price of pork, which was up 44 per cent in September from a year earlier, accounting for a fifth of the 6.1 per cent rise in the overall consumer price index. Given that backdrop, what better way to bolster one’s image as a consumer watchdog than to bash a US-owned enterprise for fraudulently driving up the price of a vital household staple?
Walmart has little choice but to suck it up. Outside the US is where the growth is: in the six months to July 31, net sales in Walmart stores outside the US grew 32 times faster than those inside it. Such figures have helped its shares outperform the market during the summer downturn.