By Peter Sharp, Sky News China correspondent

Supermarkets seldom feature large in international politics but the French Carrefour chain was an exception this weekend.

It found itself in the unlikely position of a lightning rod for protest in half a dozen cities across China.

Anti-western sentiment, fanned furiously by the state-run media, saw thousands of demonstrators protesting outside its stores.

Foreigners are not too popular on the streets of Beijing these days but it is the French that are bearing the brunt of this angry and rising tide of nationalism.

The pictures of a young disabled Chinese athlete in her wheelchair struggling to maintain a grip on the Olympic torch while grappling with a Pro-Tibet demonstrator on the streets of Paris turned little Jin Jing into a national heroine.

And also set the wheels spinning down at China Central Television (CCTV).

Earlier in the week CNN did not help much. One of its commentators in Atlanta described the Chinese as "a bunch of goons and thugs".

He later explained that he was referring to China's leaders and not the Chinese people. So that's alright then…

You could practically see the steam rising from the Foreign Ministry building.

CNN was already in the China doghouse for its coverage of the demonstrations in Tibet. Now it became China's international media whipping boy.

"Shut up CNN" t-shirts went on sale online.

You could go to the Chinese web site www.anti-cnn.com and view a catalogue of videos lambasting not just CNN but the whole of the western media.

Sloppy reporting strengthened China's case.

Pictures of troops beating six shades of you know what out of saffron-robed monks made for powerful images around the world but these were police in Kathmandu not Lhasa and the monks were in Nepal not in Tibet.

Down at the propaganda factory, Chinese news mandarins found themselves in a win-win position: banning foreign media from the streets of Lhasa last month and then accusing the same news organisations of biased coverage the next.

The pro-nationalism/anti-western media card is an easy one to play in a country where there is only one version of events.

Rather than blank out the scenes of disruption along the 85,000 mile route of the "sacred flame", CCTV spun it.

The sustained protest was described on China TV as "isolated incidents by a handful of pro-Tibet sympathisers".

Worldwide protest over a range of issues is seen not just as anti-China but anti-Chinese.

It has been said there is no public opinion in China just public sentiment and, with the help of a highly-focused and relentless state media, that sentiment is now being directed against the west.

As a Beijing taxi driver told our producer Eve: "The only thing that unites the Chinese is when foreigners attack us."

But even the dark suits in the politburo will have to concede it has all been an unmitigated public relations disaster.

At a time when Beijing should be welcoming the world to the coming Games (slogan: One World One Dream), China is snarling in the corner with its image in shreds, according to one commentator.

It will now have to work hard to ensure the enduring image of the Beijing Olympic Games will be a photograph taken of an athlete in the Birds Nest stadium and not protestors on the streets of London, Lhasa or worse on the Olympic winners' podium itself.

Comments

[Alan, Cork 25 Apr 2008 08:50:12]

why is no-one thinking for themselves on this board?? You Chinese people should be ashamed! How can you repeat exactly what the government says without having to cover your face? can you not question?

Something is going on, many people are unhappy with it, evidence states they do not do things of this nature for the pure sake of it. For the love of god, the government of China has already blamed the Dalai Llama for starting this mess.....does nobody remember Tienamen Square?

[Simon,York 22 Apr 2008 14:44:59]

Another misleading bit of news courtesy of SKY NEWS.

"Anti-western sentiment, fanned furiously by the state-run media, saw thousands of demonstrators protesting outside its stores."

This is simply not true as it's the people uniting through various forums sick of the bias news the west had portrayed recent events in China.

When will people wake up and smell the coffee?

I sometimes wonder which side are brain washed.

[Rob, UK 22 Apr 2008 09:42:54]

No we see the real face of China, the government every bit as evil as Stalin and Hitler.

[Fluffy, London, England 22 Apr 2008 09:11:55]

Posted by: matin 21 Apr 2008 15:48:22

If you are not Chinese, I assume you are from Cloud-Cookooland. Assuming the former, were you one of those successfully traced by the World Affairs Board, following similar disinformation...?

[Big Brother 21 Apr 2008 23:23:30]

Why cannot the western powers make a concerted effort to by-pass the Great Firewall of China and expose it as it really is to the people of China?

[Charles Liu 21 Apr 2008 20:56:09]

Why don't you show the picture of the man going after the girl in wheelchair?

Instead you show the "after" photo of the man pinned to the ground. How much more biased can you be Sky News?

The fact is the man was restrained because he tried to attack a girl in wheelchair.

[Justin, london 21 Apr 2008 20:24:25]

actually we have straight sent military to Afghanistan and Iraq which made million of people died as well as our royal army, how can we blame China what they did,

secondly, what about 2012 Olympic, I think our government are worse than China, does everyone want the same things happen on us ( Olympic Torch Relay Protest)?

[matin 21 Apr 2008 15:48:22]

the photo on the news really mislead the fact happen on that day, as far as I know, lots of Tibetan has been paid 300 euro to attack Olympic torch, the fuuny thing is the main sponsor is USA,France, even our British government, when our policeman to maintain the safe and security torch, we have paid tibetan to attack the torch, all the bill has been paid by ourself-taxpayer,

what's why we have been high tax rate.

[F.k. 21 Apr 2008 14:06:40]

in fact the new government is hiding his Flaws to be the level needed by France current difficulties, as much as by international organisations and others sponsorts or participants.

As we had the occasion to realize the population of France is not satisfied by the presently in fonction governement as far as it misrepresent the political and cultural compositions of France is.

So we need that correlation between society composition and the policy before any expect of good fonctioning

[Justin, Buckinghamshire 21 Apr 2008 13:21:37]

China’s rapid transformation into a major global player has been incredible and deserves respect. In the future I hope China will make a positive contribution to the wider world. Before that can happen they will need to adapt. The Chinese people must be given the right to speak out and write about issues openly, and read what they want without fear of a clamp down and arrest.

With a massive population, China has a real logistics problem of how to look after so many people. Many Chinese work in manufacturing and earn a meagre wage - but it is a job, for which they are no doubt immensely grateful. If we privileged Westerners would be willing to pay a bit more for Chinese goods, the workers would benefit as a result.

We all want the Olympics to be an enjoyable success and to pass without major incident, not marred by confrontation and demonstration. The Chinese authorities would, in any case, be quick to quash any attempts at disruption.