Foreign brands can't afford to ignore naming and shaming

Chong yang mei wai, or 'worship things foreign', is a Chinese idiom long used to describe mainlanders who have blind faith in anything foreign, from food to clothing to cars.

Mainlanders are deeply attached to foreign products - consumer-related or industrial - not only because of their brands, international flavour and cutting-edge design but, more important, their supposedly consistent high quality.

Naturally, they are willing to pay much more for foreign products than the domestically made ones, even though many of those products, whether their tags are domestic or foreign, are made on the mainland.

That explains why the recent spate of state media reports naming and shaming international brands for inferior products or allegedly misleading consumers over possible price rises have made interesting reading.

Last month, the government-sponsored Beijing Consumers Association singled out several imported brands, including Zara, Hush Puppies, Marlboro Classics and Hong Kong's G2000, for failing to meet quality standards on their apparel.

Last week, the National Development and Reform Commission fined Unilever 2 million yuan (HK$2.38 million) for only suggesting it might raise detergent and soap prices, accusing the Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods conglomerate of causing panic buying and distorting the market order.

This has, of course, triggered debates, both in the traditional media and online, with strong nationalistic comments taking the upper hand.