Taiwan Bakery Dropped From Mainland Delivery Platforms After Island Leader’s Visit

Taiwan’s 85C Bakery Café has been dropped from Chinese mainland delivery platforms after the island’s leader visited one of its stores in Los Angeles, as the chain becomes the latest target of the Chinese mainland’s politically sensitive consumers.

Although the company has since vowed to “firmly support the peaceful development of the cross-strait relationship,” this failed to appease enraged internet users. Its official website was hacked and is nonoperational as of publication.

The turmoil kicked off earlier this week when photos circulated online showing Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, who heads a party that has long been associated with the policy of Taiwan formally declaring independence from China, standing in an 85C shop with a coffee and a cushion she had signed. The pictures were posted on Facebook on Monday by fellow Democratic Progressive Party politician Tsai Shih-ying, who accompanied the leader in her pit stop in the U.S. en route to Latin America.

Shanghai-based news portal eastday.com reported the bakery visit a day later and claimed that 85C had presented “a huge customized gift” to Tsai. The article was later reposted by higher-profile media outlets, including the Global Times, triggering outrage toward the bakery chain.

85C on Wednesday denied the gifting, explaining that during Tsai’s visit, an employee asked for the leader’s signature on the cushion as a personal souvenir.

It said that the company “firmly supports the ‘1992 Consensus’ and this stance has never changed,” citing a political term that states that both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan agree that they belong to China but each side can have its own interpretation on what that means.

“The company will also continue to push forward the peaceful development of the cross-strait relationship, broaden and deepen cross-strait communications and cooperation, and oppose any behavior or remarks that separate the brotherhood of the two sides,” 85C said in a statement on its Chinese website and accounts on Chinese mainland-based social media platforms WeChat and Weibo.

But the statement didn’t satisfy some netizens, who argued that the company only posted the statement on sites that are popular on the Chinese mainland, but didn’t mention the controversy on the bakery’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts. All of those social media platforms are blocked on the Chinese mainland.

Major Chinese food delivery services, including Ele.me, owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and Meituan, which is backed by internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., have removed the bakery from their respective platforms. Both delivery firms declined to answer Caixin’s questions about where the decision to erase 85°C’s name came from.

The bakery’s official Taiwan website, hacked on Thursday to contain doctored pictures of Tsai, is “under maintenance.” Its site for the Chinese mainland and overseas markets are operational.

The bakery’s Taipei-listed parent company, Gourmet Master Co. Ltd., saw its shares tumble on Wednesday. It closed down 9.88% on Friday, the lowest point since April 2017.

The Chinese mainland is the bakery chain’s largest market, home to nearly 600 85C stores and contributed to 64.4% of the revenue in 2017.

This is the latest example of a consumer business being hit by political turmoil. South Korea’s Lotte Group had to put its supermarkets in the China market for sale after domestic consumers’ anger grew when it allowed the South Korean military to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system on a golf course it owned in response to the increase in nuclear weapon and missile testing by North Korea last year. But Beijing strongly opposed the deployment of the system.

Tsai Shih-ying, who accompanied Tsai to Los Angeles, said on Facebook that the visit was aboveboard and opened up opportunities for Taiwan.

“China has made use of the issue to put pressure on private companies and caused a disturbance, which will only arouse dislike from the Taiwan people and won’t help improve cross-strait relations,” Tsai said.

Contact reporter Coco Feng (renkefeng@caixin.com)