Qingdao Beer is being heavily promoted in Taiwan. Although it is no longer a state-owned enterprise, it still maintains numerous high-level governmental connections and is supplied by many state-owned factories, as is often the case even with private enterprises in China. China uses profits from its state-owned factories to finance its military, and, among other things, missiles pointing at our homes and neighbourhoods that are able to reach us in a matter of a few short minutes.
There is plenty of good beer already available on the island, including Taiwan Beer, which in my opinion (and I know Iām going to get slammed for this) is a great beer, particularly the [color=green]Taiwan Draft Beer [/color]in the green bottle. Do we really need to support one of [color=red]totalitarian Chinaās [/color]biggest cash cows? Drink responsibly, drink beer from free countries.
You can boycott it MaoMan but you may aswell boycott half the stuff we use around us everyday if you look at the label.
I thought all those companies had to have govt. connections to get anywhere anyway.
From the way local people are taking to the stuff you will have your work cut out, must be the crappy packaging and naff commercials that make it such a big hit
Nah, itās the familiar taste of stale cat piss that appeals to the local palate, that and the price tag. Remember all those fake Taiwan Beers that did so well as long as the price was right? Since the import duty on a 33cl can of beer is NT$10, even Tsingtao cannot afford to play the price game for very long. When the prices goes up to a realistic level, it will disappear.
I hear you HeadHoncho, and Iāve thought about that, too. For me, itās more of a consciousness-raising issue than anything else. There is an alternative to Qingdao beer, comparable in quality and certainly comparable in price. If there were not, I would say screw the boycott - a refrigerator without beer inside isnāt worth opening. 8)
In the early 80ās, through heady influences like U2 and RunDMC, I along with thousands of other high school and university students was persuaded to boycott all things South African, until the apartheid system was completely dismantled. I still believe that that was the right thing to do at the time. Is the boycotting of Chinese goods that much more ridiculous? Considering the fact that itās economic clout that China uses to hammer dissenting countries into submission, I donāt think itās unreasonable to want to even the playing field a little.
Think of it this way. If the US pointed more and more missiles at you even though you were a peaceful country, threatened you with invasion even though you posed no threat to their security, stifled your international efforts to join the community of nations, started persecuting and imprisoning religious leaders of all faiths on its own soil, imposed draconian population controls on its own citizens, including forced abortions, persisted in governing through a dictatorship that was unresponsive to its own people, would America not be a logical target for a boycott? Why should China get off so easy?
Iām not saying burn all of your China-made possessions, and never buy anything made there. Iām just suggesting that if there is a reasonable alternative, consider some of these issues. How come thereās no Chinese Mandela, anyway?
For those of you who havenāt seen it, hereās a quick breakdown:
About 30 foreigners from several countries and races are sitting around in an āold tradition sit on tatami matsā Chinese Restaurant. There are no Chinese guests. They all appear happy to be drinking loads of Tsing Tao Beer. The Chinese Proprieters (one man, one woman) are serving it up as fast as they can, but arenāt drinking it.
Whatās the underlying message?
Hereās a great way to milk the foreign community and make money?
Chinese donāt drink beer, but you can use it to rake in the cash?
If Chinese were seen drinking it, they would be accused of being āunloyalā to Taiwan?
On a related topic, has anyone else noticed how whenever āskin cleansing businessesā, ācellulite reduction businessesā, etc. advertise with nude women (a bit of a shocker on public streets, wouldnāt you say?), they always use foriegn models and never Chinese people in the ads?
The first person you see (the bald guy) is a famous Taiwanese actor.
The song is Japanese style, but sung in Hokkien (āTaiwaneseā).
I see several other Chinese-looking people in the ad. You need a new pair of glasses.
To see the ad, go to http://tw.promo.yahoo.com/beer/# and click the first of the 3 ad options on the left-hand side (Gewu bian=song and dance version).
Yes, it is a Japanese environment (duh - my comment on the tatami mats should have tipped me off, no?) The woman in the kimono with the fans was a pretty big clue, too.
Yes, I do need glasses, unfortunately. However, I still stand by my original observation that you donāt see many Chinese customers in the ad (I looked at it twice just now on that little screen provided in the link, and didnāt see any except for the servers).
Kam Pai! I think itās time for a non-boycotted beverage of choice. Go Belgium Beers!
I read in last weekendās newspaper that TsingDao are opening a brewery in PingDong. Maybe that will help them to avoid the import tax that a previous poster mentionedā¦
Been boycotting the stuff already for a while. If a Qingdao pijiu girl comes up and asks me if I want one, I say loudly with a smile āBu hao yisi, wo bu yao neige gongchangdang pijiu!ā
Of course this is kind of unrelated as I donāt think our waiguoren boycott will amount to much, but remember that spy plane incident last year, the PRC didnāt give up until soon after KMART faxed a memo to their suppliers that people in the USA are clamoring about boycotting PRC made products and that KMART might have to start looking for new suppliers soon.
I was thinking that if the USA did boycott all China made products and switched to suppliers in Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia etc., there would be so many unemployed factory workers in the PRC that it just might spell disaster for the Communist party, no matter much they try to redirect the workers anger towards the USA. Not sure if the PRC domestic market is enough to keep all of the factories open, or if the USA could persuade Europe and Japan to do the same, but something like this just might be very powerful in the event that the PRC tries to attack Taiwan or pulls another Tiananmen Square shooting spree.
I think this kind of boycott would have to happen soon, as in a few years, too many countries may be selling too many of their products in the PRC that wouldnāt want to risk losing the Communist China market.
Heh heh good one. tsingdao tastes like shit anyways, and them commies are just a no good bunch of stupid bullies.
but interestingly, I heard that since the Taiwan alcohol monopoly company (or whatever itās called) is the only alcohol company in Taiwan, theyāre the ones that import Tsindao beer, and make money off of it. So basically Taiwan beer and Tsindao (in Taiwan) come from the same company, so I guess thereās not much competition. and if you buy Tsindao beer you make money for Taiwan as wellā¦sort ofā¦
If I have to drink commie beer, I actually think that Yen Jing beer is pretty good. Better than the Tsindao crap.
Another interesting piece of info, I heard that Tsindao is actually German beer. Tsindao (a location name) was German territory back when Westerners carved up China, and their brewery later bacame the Tsindao beer we know today. Which makes you wonder, if itās German beer how can it be so crappy??
A bottle of T-s-i-n-g-t-a-o, (might as spell spell it right fer christās sake) has two purposes in life. First, it gets you drunk, and second it gives a middle finger to the dumb wankers at the Heineken price-fixing department. NT$52 for 600ml of beer? And you people are complaining?
Sorry, but I donāt willingly buy anything from people who have missiles pointed at me and my family and pi** on the international bill of human rightsā¦
DPP Legislator Cai Qifang (č”åč³) holds a press conference at the Legis-
lative Yuan yesterday to publicize Beijingās repeated refusal to allow Tai-
wan Beer imports. A new brand name, [color=green]TTL Beer[/color], has had to be created.
Canāt believe those Imperialistic Commie S.O.B.s in Beijing! Definitely not drinking their beer now!
We should do like they did at the Boston Tea party and when we see Tsingdao Beer in the stores, we take it out to the streets and break them in front of the stores. Go to the harbors and dump the Tsingdao beer cargo into the harbor.
pointing at our homes and neighbourhoods that are able to reach us in a matter of a few short minutes. 
