Starbucks Attacked with 'Chitubu Terror' After Forcibly Removing Chinese Police Who Ate Without Permission

Four public security officers are eating outside food at an outdoor seating area of a Starbucks in Chongqing, China.
[Photo by Weibo]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] A Starbucks employee who chased away Chinese public security officers eating outside food without permission is instead facing criticism from local netizens.

On the 18th, China’s People's Daily reported that a Starbucks employee in Chongqing recently chased away four public security officers who were eating outside food at outdoor seats.

According to the report, many customers flocked to Starbucks that day due to the weekend. There were no empty seats inside the store or outside.

At that time, four public security officers were sitting at outdoor seats eating lunch boxes without permission, and when customers who saw this filed complaints, the employee asked them to vacate the seats.

The media criticized Starbucks for not treating the public security officers properly. They also criticized the policy banning outside food and the employee training guidelines.

Chinese netizens also criticized the employee’s actions, saying things like "This company goes against the sentiment of Chinese people" and "They usually look down on public security, so they act like this."

Moreover, it was reported that Chinese people have been carrying out acts of sabotage in front of the Starbucks by placing funeral flowers or putting stinky fermented tofu, which has a strong odor.

Eventually, Starbucks issued an official apology, stating, "Other customers requested to use the outdoor seats, and to accommodate this, the employees’ inappropriate words and actions caused misunderstandings with the public security officers," and bowed their heads.

Overseas netizens who saw this reacted with disbelief. One netizen said, "The employee just did what they were supposed to do," and "It’s obviously the public security officers’ fault, so I don’t understand why Starbucks is apologizing." Another netizen said, "It must be really hard to operate Starbucks in China."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.