No apology from “Eat Chinese” T-shirt maker a week after embassy demand

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Europe

Controversy continues over the sale of T-shirts in Germany with slogans that may insult Chinese nationals. The Chinese Embassy in Germany has repeatedly called on the German online retailer Spreadshirt to apologize and stop selling the shirts, but no apology has been made by the company so far, nor has it halted the sales.

Earlier this March, a series of T-shirts printed slogans “Save a dog, eat a Chinese”, “Save a shark, eat a Chinese” and “Keep calm and eat Chinese”, were spotted online after netizens exposed the photos and deemed the sayings as racist on social networks. The shirts with “Save a dog, eat a Chinese” slogan cannot be found, as we checked on its website on Tuesday afternoon.

There has been no apology, but rather a proclamation on the company's website, saying "after close examination and careful consideration, we have decided to keep these designs on our platform."

A screenshot of statement made by Spreadshirt CEO from its website /spreadshirt.com

The Chinese Embassy points out that the company's behavior goes against its stated corporate responsibility. The embassy has released a statement asking for a halt to the T-shirt sales and an apology. It also calls for supervision by the appropriate German authorities.