Embarrassing buckling: Daimler clears Dalai Lama quote and triggers controversy

07/02/2018

Embarrassing buckling Daimler erases Dalai Lama quote and triggers controversy

REUTERS

“Look at situations from all sides and you will become more open”: Something like that does not like to be heard in communist Beijing, and already Daimler erases the innocent slogan of the spiritual leader of Tibet in an advertisement, so as not to jeopardize his business interests

Who wants to do business in the world’s largest car market in China, should not even think of the Dalai Lama – let alone advertise with him. That did not consider Daimler and makes now a “shameful Kotau before the dictatorship”, angered critics.

The German carmaker Daimler has provoked a controversy because he has apologized in China for using a Dalai Lama quote. The human rights organization International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) described the apology in a late Tuesday announcement as a “shameful kowtow to the dictatorship.”

Daimler had previously published on Instagram a picture of a Mercedes along with the words “Look at situations from all sides and you’ll be more open”, a quote from the Tibetan leader. A spokeswoman for the car maker confirmed to the German Press Agency that the article was deleted after complaints by nationalist, Chinese Internet users.

In order to avoid incidents of this kind, it would be “immediately take measures to deepen the understanding of Chinese culture and values,” it also said in a message circulated on the Chinese short message service Weibo of Mercedes.

The car maker also received criticism for the apology from Michael Bran, the human rights spokesman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group. “If backbone would be honored, then the Mercedes managers would have earned the first prize for their embarrassing behavior,” Brand said. “The corporation should not apologize to the Chinese government, but quickly to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans.”

Recently, there have been a number of similar incidents involving foreign companies looking for criticism China including the hotel chain Marriott and the airline Delta.

Rei / dpa

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