Daimler advertised in China with a quote from the Dalai Lama, then came complaints. Now the car maker has given in, human rights activists consider that a “shameful kowtowing”.
Dalai Lama
Wednesday, 07.02.2018
10:47
Daimler has with a quote of Dalai Lama caused a controversy in China and Germany. In the People’s Republic of the auto company had courted with a saying of the Tibetan leader, but then apologized. The human rights organization International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) described the apology in a statement as a “shameful kowtowing before the dictatorship”.
Daimler had a picture of a Mercedes on Instagram with the words “Look at situations from all sides, and you’ll be more open”, a quotation from the Dalai Lama. A spokeswoman for the car manufacturer confirmed that the post was deleted after complaints from Chinese Internet users had been made.
China had annexed Tibet in 1950, the Dalai Lama is considered by the government in Beijing as a representative of a separatist movement. For Daimler 
China is by far the largest single market of its luxury-class Mercedes.
However, Daimler did not just leave it up to deleting the post. In order to avoid incidents of this kind, “immediate action will be taken to deepen the understanding of Chinese culture and values,” according to a message from Mercedes circulated on the Chinese short message service Weibo. This also applies to international employees and should ensure that such an incident does not happen again.
The car maker Michael Brand, the human rights spokesman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, received harsh criticism for the apology. “If backbone would be honored, then the Mercedes managers would have earned the first prize for their embarrassing behavior,” Brand announced. “The corporation should not apologize to the Chinese government, but quickly to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans.”
Recently, there were a number of similar incidents in which foreign companies had to apologize for criticism from China, including the hotel chain Marriott, the airline Delta and the Spanish fashion chain Zara.